To Lieutenant-Colonel Colquhoun
Grant at The Embassy of His
Britannic Majesty
Paris
c/o Fort George
Madras
28 February 1816
Sir,
I have the honour to report my arrival in India. My ship had perforce to put into Madras for repairs and during her inactivity I availed myself of a most opportune re-acquaintance which has placed me within the state of Chintal very considerably earlier than might otherwise have been arranged.
I report that predatory bands of Maratha horse are marauding along the Eastern Circars but, from accounts I have, they do not trouble the Nizam’s territories, nor very greatly that of the Rajah of Chintal. I have it on the same and other authorities that the Nizam’s forces are formidable and respected, and that especially he is well served by artillery.
I have further to report that I am in contact with Mr Selden and shall be proceeding with him soon directly to the Rajah’s capital at Chintalpore. I am very mindful that my orders are to report first to Mr Bazzard in Calcutta, and I shall, of course, communicate with him at once, but the opportunity presented by my encountering Mr Selden is one which I feel sure you would wish me to avail myself of, for it is probable that I shall shortly make the acquaintance of the Nizam himself since His Highness is to visit with the Rajah. I have accounts, by officials of the Honourable East India Company, that relations between the Nizam and the Rajah are infelicitous. However, by Mr Selden’s own accounts, relations are — if not cordial — sufficiently tolerable. I believe — though I may only surmise — that this disparity of opinion is occasioned by the want of intelligence available to Madras, for it seems that Haidarabad and Chintal are interests of Calcutta’s rather than of the former. I have to report, however, that there appears to be certain resentment between Fort George and Fort William which may stand in the way of unity of effort in terms of intelligence.
This must therefore be but a brief account of my assessments so far. I pray that this fortuitous beginning shall yield full and timely results, and with little attention drawn to His Grace’s agency here.
I remain, Sir, Your Most Obedient Servant
M. P. Hervey
Captain
From the Deputy Commissioner of Kistna, Guntoor the Collector of Land Revenues, and Magistrate
To The Governor’s Secretary Fort George Madras
2 March 1816
Sir,
Be pleased to lay before the Governor at the earliest opportunity this assessment of the recent incursions into the Company’s territory of the Eastern Circars by the irregular Maratha horse become known as Pindarees. At attachment is a schedule of depredations, together with the relief authorized.
In all probability the route of the incursion lay through Nagpore, and it is most evident therefore that that country is enfeebled to a degree alarming to the Company’s peace. My agents report that the Rajah of that place is so enfeebled as to be incapable of exerting his dominion. His son is but an imbecile and a prey to the most malevolent influences. It is my very strongest recommendation that the treaty of subsidiary alliance be advanced as rapidly as possible ere the country descends to lawlessness, and I urge you most fervently to press upon Fort William the absolute imperative of concluding the said. For the present time I urge that the subsidiary force be assembled in anticipation of said conclusion so that not the least time is lost in bringing Nagpore under regulation.
I have in the past urged a similar course with Chintal and my entreaties have been met with ill favour at Fort William on account of their conviction that Chintal represented no threat as a conduit for Pindaree attacks upon the Circars, neither that the Nizam retained any ambitions towards attaching that country to his own by force of arms. I must tell you now that my agents report most emphatically that the Nizam is about to begin a campaign against Chintal by subversion and intimidation. I do not have to tell you how parlous would be the condition of Madras, and the Circars, were such a unity to be opposed to the policies of the Company at some time in the future, for it would render mutual support of the two Presidencies by land most perilous. I therefore urge once more that Chintal, as Nagpore, be pressed to conclude a subsidiary alliance, if necessary on terms unusually advantageous. The situation, believe me, is very grave.
I have the honour to be etc etc
Eyre Somervile C.B.