o the
Governorship of Madras.

Clive took with him to India three companies of artillery and 300
infantry. He was instructed to convey them to Bombay, and, joined by
all the available troops of the Company and their Maratha allies, to
endeavour to wrest the Deccan from French {77}influence. But, just as
he was sailing, he discovered that, through royal influence, Colonel
Scott of the Engineers, then on the spot, had been nominated to the
command, with himself as his second. Not caring to take part in an
expedition in which his own voice would not be the decisive voice,
Clive was anxious to proceed to take up his government at Fort St.
David, when, on his arrival, he learned the death of Colonel Scott.
This event recalled him to the original plan. But another
complication ensued. Very shortly before he had arranged to march
there came the information that the French and English on the
Coromandel coast had entered into a treaty, binding on the two
nations in India, not to interfere in the warlike operations of
native princes. The Deccan project, therefore, had to be abandoned.

Another promptly took its place. A small fort built by the great
Sivaji on a small island in the harbour of Viziadrug, called by the
Muhammadans Gheria, had for many years past been made the
headquarters of a hereditary pirate-chief, known to the world as
Angria. This man had perpetrated much evil, seizing territories,
plundering towns, committing murders, robbing peaceful vessels, and
had made his name feared and detested along the entire length of the
Malabar coast. The necessity to punish him had long been admitted
alike by the Marathas and the English. The year preceding the Bombay
Government had despatched Commodore Jones with a squadron to attack
Angria's possessions. Jones accomplished {78}something, but on
arriving before Dabhol he was recalled on the ground that the season
was too late for naval operations on that coast.

In the autumn of the following year Admiral Watson came out to assume
command of the squadron. It had by this time become more than ever
necessary to bring the affair to a definite conclusion, and, as Clive
and his troops were on the spot, the Bombay Government, acting with
the Marathas, resolved to despatch the fleet and army to destroy the
piratical stronghold. Of the expedition, which reached its
destination in February, it is sufficient to state that in two days
it destroyed Gheria. Thence Clive pursued his voyage