last-named, at the end of 1753, the Northern Circars were assigned to the French by the Nizam of Hyderabad (see p. 31) and Bussy, the French General, agreed to lease the Chicacole and Rajahmundry Circars to Pedda Viziaráma Rázu, the Rája of Vizianagram. A rupture between Bussy and the Nizam led to the weakening of the former's authority in the new acquisitions, but at the end of 1756 he arrived at Rajahmundry with a force designed to compel the payment of arrears of tribute and re-establish the position of the French. Viziarama Rázu went to meet him accompanied by 10,000 troops of his own and other chiefs, and, while there, used all his influence to persuade him to remove his own powerful neighbour and rival, the Rája of Bobbili, between whom and himself much jealousy existed. Bussy proposed to Bobbili that he should leave his fort and receive instead other land of greater extent and value in another part of the province, but the suggestion was received as an insult. Soon afterwards one of Bussy's detachments was cut up in the woods of Bobbili and in his anger the General determined to expel that chief and all his family. The result was 'one of the most ghastly stories which even Indian history has to record.' Orme's description is as follows, and no apology is needed for inserting his explanatory account of the defences of Bobbili, since it applies to the scores of old mud forts with which this district is dotted and shows how formidable, when in repair, were the defences which now, in their ruined condition, seem so contemptible. Orme says: —
'The province of Chicacole has few extensive plains, and its hills increase in frequency and magnitude, as they approach the vast range of mountains that bound this, and the province of Rajahmandrum, to the north-west. The bills, and the narrower bottoms which separate them, are suffered to over-run with wood, as the best protection to the opener valleys allotted for cultivation. The Polygar [chieftain], besides his other towns and forts, has always one situated in the most difficult part of his country, which is intended as the last refuge for himself and all of his own blood. The singular construction of this fort is adequate to all the intentions of defence amongst a people unused to cannon, or other means of battery. Its outline is a regular square, which rarely exceeds 200 yards; a large round tower is raised at each of the angles, and a square proJection in the middle of each of the sides. The height of the wall is 22 feet, but of the rampart within only 12, which is likewise its breadth at top, although it is laid much broader at bottom; the whole is of tempered clay, raised in distinct layers, of which each is left exposed to the sun until thoroughly hardened, before the next is applied. The parapet rises 10 feet above the rampart, and is only three feet thick. It is indented five feet down from the top in interstices six inches wide
