It was in the year 1690 we purchased it from the Mah rattas, and Mr. Hatsell was ordered " to go to receive pos session of the fort and pay the money," and with him were to be sent " some factors to be of council there, also a Lieuten ant, two Ensigns, gunners, etc., officers, one hundred soldiers, twenty matrosses, twenty laskars, thirty great guns, one hundred barrels of powder, two hundred musquets, one hundred cartouches, one hundred swords, and ammunition, etc., necessary for such a garrison and settlement," and it was resolved " that the guns, stores, and household stuff be re moved from Conimeer and the southern factories thither." The cession included not only the fort but the adjacent towns and villages " within ye randome shott of a piece of ordnance." The best brass gun at Madras was sent with Hatsell, and he was informed that it " lyes in the gunners art to load and fire it to the best advantage." The gunner was evidently skilled in his art, for on September 23, 169o, at the time when Dutch William was busy establishing his power in Ireland, the " randome shott " was fired and it fell beyond Cuddalore. And to this day the villages in eluded within the range of " that randome shott " are known as the " Gundu Gramam " or " Cannon Ball Vil lages." The English proceeded at once to introduce law and order into their new possession. Mr. Haynes, Mr. Watts, and Macudum Nina were appointed justices of the Choultry " to try and determine causes Civill and Criminal, and to execute according to sentence, lyfe only excepted, which must be done by another court of judicature." " All tryalls of moment " were to be registered by " an English Clark of said coart," " and the differences amongst black merchants " be decided by " Arbitrators of their own cast." It was also proposed that a mint should be established, but the mint for coining silver and gold was not formed till the beginning of 1747, when the capture of Madras by the French made Fort St. David the chief settlement on the coast.
All, and their name is legion, who have read Macaulay's brilliant essay on Clive, know that he was one of the prisoners who escaped from Madras to Fort St. David. It was at Fort St. David he gained, by the daring courage which he dis played, his first commission. In a despatch to the court of Directors, dated May 2, 1747, we read : An old writer, in English worthy of the great lexico grapher, informs us : " As Ensign he served under Admiral Boscawen at the siege of Pondicherry, September, 1748 ; his gallant conduct in the de fence of the advanced breach gave the first prognostic of that high military spirit, which was the spring of his future actions and the principal source of the decisive intrepidity and eleva tion of mind which were his characteristical endowments." Three years later, in the expedition against Devi-Cotah, Clive, then holding the rank of Lieutenant, volunteered to lead the attack at the breach. His small platoon of thirty four Europeans became separated from the sepoys, and was attacked by a large body of the enemy's horse in the rear. They had no time to face about and defend themselves, and in an instant twenty-six of the platoon were cut to pieces. " A horseman had his sword uplifted to strike at Lieu tenant Clive, who escaped the blow by stepping on one side whilst the horse passed him : he then ran towards the sepoys, whom he had the good fortune to join, being one of four who were all that escaped from the slaughter." Thus narrowly did England escape losing the man who by his courage and statesmanship laid the foundation of her Oriental Empire.
Shortly after the capture of Devi-Cotah Clive resigned his commission and was appointed steward. But when pro spects of active service again opened before him, he returned to the ranks, and in the old records we read : " Mr. Robert Clive, who has lately been very serviceable in conducting several parties to camp, offering to go without any consideration to pay, provided we will give him a Brevet to en title him to the rank of a Captain, as he was an officer at the siege of Pondicherry almost the whole time of the war, and dis tinguished himself on many occasions, it is conceived that this officer may be of some service, and, therefore, now ordered that a Brevet be drawn out and given him." As a brevet Captain, Clive started from Fort St. David on the expedition for the relief of Arcot. He was then only twenty-five, and he returned to England at the age of twenty seven, having earned the reputation of being one of the first soldiers of the age. Six years later he came back to Fort St. David as Governor, but had held the office only a few weeks when he was summoned to Madras, to command the troops which were being sent to Bengal to recover our lost possession, and to revenge a foul massacre.
Early in the afternoon we set forth from the garden house to visit the old fort. To reach it we had once again to sub mit to the tortures of a jutka, but our miseries were, to some degree, mitigated by the companionship of a retired native official. He had the good manners which distinguished the Indian gentlemen of the old school, and thirty years of Government service had not dulled his keen intellect. Vigor ous in body and mind, it was difficult at first to determine to what race he belonged. However, after a few moments' conversation we asked him if he were not a Deccan Brah min. Then he told us, with obvious pride, how his grand father had commanded a squadron, under Shivaji, and for his services had been rewarded with a grant of land, and the family had been settled in these parts from that day. We became fast friends on our telling him that many happy years of our life had been spent in the capital of the Deccan, and that we took an interest in the tales of wild Mahratta battle. The old man grew eloquent as he discoursed about the brave deeds of his forefathers, for a lifetime spent in official harness had not destroyed the love and pride of race which the Mahratta has in common with the Celt. A staunch conservative, he did not seem to have much respect for the modern native official, the product of our higher education. He considered they wanted backbone. But what were you to expect if you destroyed the belief in the old gods, and sapped the force of customs which had existed for ages ? It required delicate handling, and the expression of tolerant views, to extract from him his opinion regarding the administration in which he had played a part. But it was the same tale we had heard in the Deccan and Bengal. He did not consider the people had grown more prosperous by our rule, and though, no doubt, the British Government was a very perfect and good Government, and meant well, it had not made the people happier. There was considerable distress amongst the poorer classes, and the old grain pits now lay empty. After having had to study for many years the optimistic opinions of official scribes, the pessimism of the old man was both interesting and instructive.