and his reign lasted for ten years, our earliest treaty with Haidarabad was concluded in 1759 with this prince.

In 1761, Salabat Jang was deposed by his brother, Nizam Ali, and died two years afterwards in prison.

During the rule of Nizam Ali the bonds of alliance between the British Government and Haidarabad were gradually strengthened. The two Powers co-operated in the military operations that led to the fall of Seringapatam, and the overthrow of Tippu Sultan. Nizam Ali died in 1803.

His son, Sikandar Jah, succeeded. This Chief withdrew himself almost entirely from public affairs, and making no provision whatever for their conduct, left his State a prey to anarchy. It was accordingly found necessary to place British officers in administrative charge of the various districts.

On the death of Sikandar Jah, in 1829, his son, Nazir-udDaula, who succeeded, requested that the direct interference of British officers in the administration of the country might be discontinued; and his request was complied with.

Nazir-ud-Daula died in 1857, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Afzal-ud-Daula, father of the present Nizam. This prince stood firm to his allegiance through the Mutiny, and in 1861 received the Grand Cross of the Star of India. He died in 1869.

The city of Haidarabad was founded in 1569 by Mahomed Kuli, one of the Qutb Shahi kings. It stands on the right bank of the river Musi, about eight miles from the old capital and fortress of Golconda.

Haidarabad is famous for its cotton. The produce of the Edlabad district, which chiefly finds its way to the market of Hinganghat, is especially esteemed. The mango and custardapple grow wild over large tracts of the State. The melons and pineapples of Haidarabad are as celebrated as the oranges of Nagpur; and the large purple grape of Daulatabad is exported to many distant markets.

The Nizam's State coins its own money; makes its own laws; constitutes its own Courts of Justice; and raises its own taxes. It is, however, prohibited by treaty from holding communication with any other States, or entering into any negotiations with them without the consent of the Paramount Power. Moreover,

when a Nizam dies, the British Resident must be consulted as to the appointment of a successor, and no such appointment is valid without the approval of the Government of India.

Two contingents are maintained by the British Government for the defence of Haidarabad. One is known as the Haidarabad Subsidiary Force, and the other as the Haidarabad Contingent. For the maintenance of the former, the Ceded Districts were made over to us in full sovereignty under the treaty of 1800; and for the support of the latter, the province of Berar was assigned to us in trust, under the treaties of 1853 and 1860.

The present Nizam-ul-Mulk is a delicate boy of eleven years. He has no full brothers or sisters. He is intelligent and welldisposed. An English officer superintends his education; but, much of his time is still spent with his mother, Wadid-u-Nisa, Begam, and with his grandmother, Dilawar-u-Nisa, Begam. While he is thus well cared for, his State is under the wise management of the great Minister, Sir Salar Jang.

Maisur.

Chapter IX.-MAISUR.

MAISUR.-Little is known of the early history of this principality. According to the Hindu legend a small territory to the west of the Karnatik, consisting of two forts and a few villages, was rendered a distinct and independent State by two young men of the Yadu tribe, who, coming as strangers to a marriage festival at Hadana, near Maisur, slew, with the connivance of the bride and her relatives, the destined bridegroom, a Chief of Karugali. The elder married the bride, and became the recognised Chief of the united territories. This was about 1399. But the first Chief we really know any thing about is Cham Raj, the six-fingered, and he was more of a Baron than a King. He lived in the early part of the sixteenth century. His successor, Betad Cham Raj, in 1524, divided his possessions among his three sons, to the youngest of whom,-Cham Raj, the Bald,-was assigned the fort of Puragarh, with some of the adjacent villages. In the same year this fort was improved and

* Wilks.

strengthened, and its name was changed to Mahesh Asur, the Buffalo-headed Monster,-whence Maisur. In 1609, the ninth Chief, Raj Wadiar, seized Seringapatam, which was then held by a Lieutenant of the Vizianagar* kings, and by a series of aggressions greatly extended the limits of his patrimony. His successors, Cham Raj, Kantirai, Dodda Deoraj and Chikka Deoraj, all added to the State by conquest, until it comprised the whole of the present Ashtagram Division, and more than half that of Nandidrug, besides part of the Koimbatur and Salem districts of Madras. The total area probably amounted to 15,000 square miles, with a revenue of fifty lakhs. Chikka Deoraj died in 1704. His successor, Kantirai II., who reigned for ten years, was born deaf and dumb. The next Chief was almost imbecile, and the whole power of the State now passed into the hands of ambitious ministers and adventurers.

While Maisur was thus a prey to greedy officials, Haidar Ali, an officer of humble origin in the State army rose to power. His intrigues, and treaties and battles cannot be spoken of in this place. Suffice it to say that during his life-time he left the titular sovereignty to the old dynasty, although treating its representatives with the utmost harshness and severity. His son, Tippu Sultan, however, was not so moderate. He assumed both the nominal and real supremacy, and when Seringapatam was taken in 1799, Sir Arthur Wellesley found the little Raja-about six years old with his mother and all his relations living in a wretched hovel, and despoiled of the simplest personal ornaments without which the humblest Hindu is rarely seen. To this child Lord Wellesley found it convenient to restore the family dominions. He was called Krishna Raj Wadiar. Brought up in extreme indigence as a child, and uneducated as a boy, he grew up self-willed and wronged-headed. He was despotic, capricious, extravagant and entirely ignorant of the first principles of administration: so after he had been formally placed in power by the British Government, and started well with respectable officials, a full

†The power of the Vizianagar sovereigns had been previously (1588) annihilated by the Mahomedan Chiefs of the Deckan, and they, abandoning their capital on the Tungabhadra, had retreated to Pennakonda, where they became extinct,

treasury and an administrative system, it was soon found necessary, in order to save Maisur from the miseries of anarchy, to resume the management of the country. The machinery of Government had all fallen to pieces in an incredibly short time. Every official had become an authorised plunderer, trade and agriculture were becoming impossible, and the entire framework of society was breaking up. Lord W. Bentinck therefore wrote to the Raja declaring that he "felt it indispensable, as well with "reference to the stipulations of the subsidiary Treaty of 1799, "as from a regard to the obligations of a protective character "which the British Government held towards the State of "Maisur, to interfere for its preservation, and to secure the "various interests at stake from further ruin." It seemed to him that in order to do this effectually it would be necessary to transfer the entire administration of the country into the hands of British Officers, and a Commission was accordingly appointed to effect this.

Maharaja Krishna Raj Wadiar died at Maisur in 1868. His adopted son, the present Chief, Chamrajendra Wadiar, was installed as his successor in the same year.

For nearly half a century Maisur has now enjoyed the fostering care of the Paramount Power, and when the young Maharaja comes of age in 1880, he will enter upon a rich and splendid inheritance. To prepare him for the high responsibilities that it will carry with it, the Government of India has made every provision for his education; and as he will receive a great and prosperous country to rule over, that country, it is hoped, will receive a wise and just prince to honor and obey.

Colonel Malleson, who was for some years his Tutor and Guardian, gives us the following account of the plan pursued in educating the Maharaja :--"A school was formed in one of the palaces in "the healthiest part of Maisur. To it were invited the sons "of the nobles and officers of State, and there, in September 66 1869, did the Raja, then six years and a half old, begin his "education. From that time up to the present his progress "has been steady and satisfactory. He is being taught all, "with the exception of Latin and Greek, that would be taught "in an English school. He has learned to ride, even to hun

"with the hounds, to play cricket, and to drive. He has mani"fested a cheerful, steady and painstaking disposition. He "is punctual and methodical in his habits, and evinces an "amiability of character which promises well for the future."

Maisur has an area equal to that of Scotland, with a population of upwards of five millions. It is a great undulating plateau, diversified with isolated hills rising abruptly from the plain.

Chapter X.-MADRAS.

TRAVANCOR.-Tradition asserts that the rich, damp land lying Travanbetween the mountains and the Indian Ocean in the far south cor. was reclaimed from the sea by a powerful saint named Sri Paras Rama, and peopled by a colony of Brahmans. Of the saint we can say nothing; but a very ancient Brahman community, known as Namburi, still exists as a landed aristocracy, holding immemorial inheritances exempt from any tax, due or rent whatsoever. Tradition goes on to say that Kshatriya Chiefs were invited by them to come and rule over this country; which they did, being elected for periods of twelve years. These Chiefs eventually established their power on a firm and independent basis. The last of them is said to have been named Cheruman Perumal. He at first ruled Kerala as Viceroy of the Chola kings, and afterwards established an independent sovereignty. We read that he held a great strip of the rich Coast lands, finally parcelling them out among his children, the eldest of whom received for his share the southern portion with a small village now known as Tiruvankodu. This event is said to have taken place about 1,200 years ago; and it is possible that the present dynasty has existed for this period.

The Malayalim era (known as the Quilon era) dates from 825 A.D., and the names of the Princes who ruled successively since that year are preserved, though really authentic* history only carries us back for about 200 years.

* Commercial intercourse between Europe and Travancôr is said to have been carried on in the time of the Romans and at a very early period a colony of Jews is supposed to have settled on the coast. It is also believed that about the year 350 A.D., one Kona Thoma established a colony of Syrian Christians.