f June, almost
simultaneously with the receipt of a letter, containing the information
that war had been declared between England and France. This news
quickened the operations of Hastings. It was represented by his
opponents, Francis and Wheler, that the army should be recalled, as
Bengal was as likely to be attacked as Bombay; but Hastings insisted
that the army should proceed, as Bengal could be well defended without
it. Hastings then commenced a series of measures of defence against
French aggression. He seized Chandernagore and all the French
factories in Bengal; sent orders to the presidency of Madras to occupy
Pondicherry; threw up strong works near Calcutta; collected a vast
number of vessels of all kinds, and improvised a regular marine
establishment; and raised nine new battalions of sepoys, and a numerous
corps of native artillery. In the meantime the army under Colonel
Leslie was marching towards the acme of action. In his progress he
was directed to conciliate and captivate the goodwill of the rulers and
people in every district through which his line of inarch lay; but
at the same time he was to fight his way where he could not win it
by conciliation. Leslie had to engage with a Mahratta chief, called
Ballajee, and with the young Rajah of Bondilcund; but these were
overcome without great difficulty; and having reached Rajaghur, a
principal city of Bondilcund, on the 17th of August, he halted
there, for the purpose of entering into private negociations with the
pretenders and chiefs of that country. Colonel Leslie remained so long
at Rajaghur, that Hastings thought it necessary to recall him to Bengal,
and to confide the command of the army to Lieutenant-Colonel Goddard;
at the same time declaring by letters to the Rajah of Bondilcund and
his competitors, that all Leslie's treaties and agreements were invalid.
Goddard proved to be a much more active officer than his predecessor. On
receiving his command he quitted Bondilcund, and crossing the Nerbudda
came to the city of Nagpoor, where he established a friendly relation
with the Mahrattas of Berar, and where he received dispatches from
Bombay, acquainting him that the presidency had put an army in motion
for Poona, under the command of Colonel Egerton, and that the two armies
were to meet in the neighbourhood of that city. Egerton arrived at the
destined point first; and disastrous consequences ensued to his army.
In his camp were two civil commissioners, wh