The Passage to India

by Allan Mallinson

  A SCHEME TO DEPOSE THE RAJAH OF COORG

  BY THE MOST EXPEDITIOUS MEANS.

  OBJECT.

  The object of Government is to secure the person of the Rajah of Coorg.

  CONSIDERATION OF THE GROUND.

  Coorg is a mountainous and woody state. The frontier rises in strength in some places nearly impracticable; in others, of comparatively easy access. Thus the mountain passes towards the sea are very strong, and wind through a forest country defensible at every step. The boundary toward Wainand, partly marked by the Bramagerry hills, is almost impracticable at any time, much more so with a hardy and active enemy in front. On the other hand, the south-eastern boundary of the country toward Mysore is comparatively open, while that part to the north is densely wooded and can be strongly stockaded. There are few good roads penetrating the country, which besides offering the best points of entry are also points of escape, as well as pointes de sortie for riposte (of the objects of riposte, it is considered that Mangalore is of greatest value). These must therefore be garrisoned whether or no the intention is to use them as points of entry. It is not considered likely that the rajah will try to escape through the jungle even by disguise, when he would have to abandon his women, which would dishonour him, fearing murder by his own subjects or being given up by them into our hands.

  The roads are four in number from each compass point, which conjoin at Madkerry. Each rises by several hundred feet in course to Madkerry (the highest peak in Coorg is believed to lie more than 5000 feet above the level of the sea), in places by serpentine loops which, well garrisoned, might greatly hinder advance. The rivers which intersect these roads in a small number of places present no hindrance to movement save in the Monsoon between May and October. Intercommunication, which perforce must be exceedingly slow, is impracticable without local knowledge. Once committed to a route of advance, therefore, a force cannot come to the aid of another. Cavalry may maintain communications between the forces by relay, but the Coorga perimeter is in excess of 150 miles, which, with the distance travelled along each road in addition, does not permit of timely passage of information. Madkerry itself occupies a plateau favourable to the rapid movement of cavalry. There is a fortified residence, but otherwise the town presents no especial consideration. The weather is most favourable to campaigning between December and May. In other months the Monsoon rains will greatly favour the defender. It is considered that the latest that the campaign may begin is the first day of April.

  CONSIDERATION OF THE ENEMY.

  The Coorgs are counted a brave and hardy race. The Army of the Rajah is reckoned to consist of 8000 men, 3000 of them discharged Mysoreans. Their method is to avoid battle in the open and to fight from behind stockades, which the close country greatly favours. From the small extent of that country, and their knowledge of the jungle paths, information may be quickly conveyed, so that they might effect rapid junction with a view to mutual support. We may expect them to have had many months’ notice of our invasion, and therefore to prepare for war, so that they defend a strong natural fortress amply stored. Their policy has been to oppose incursion with great vigour when the place of it is known beforehand and where the enemy force is small. Alternatively, when the situation is otherwise, the policy has been to permit of deep incursion to exhaust resolve and supplies, and then to counter-attack. On the other hand, the Rajah has forfeited the sympathy of many of his subjects, whose cooperation, active and passive, we might with judiciousness secure.

  CONCLUSIONS.

  It is not expedient to attempt to secure the person of the Rajah by ruse or before formal declaration of intent, since this might bring into question the legitimacy of the Government’s actions and provoke a lasting resistance by arms. It will be necessary to take his capital, Madkerry, the command of which in turn commands the principal roads.

  The largest force possible is required in order to blockade or advance along the four roads of access to Madkerry as early as possible, and to prevent an unnecessary effusion of blood, and a procrastinating warfare, which would cause severe suffering to the attacking force. These roads must be secured at one and the same time, or as near as may be. The force must include as many sappers and pioneers as may be to destroy those stockades and abbatis en route to Madkerry which it is not possible to garrison so that they may not be occupied in rear of us to harass our lines of communication. Supply must be contained amply within the elements of each force sufficient to sustain active operations for seven days (ten for the southern column), which in those elements at the furthest point of entry from Madkerry supposes an advance of 3–5 miles daily.

  PLAN OF CAMPAIGN.

  Without recourse to the more distant garrisons, which would impose a burden of supply and communication militating against rapid concentration of the forces on the border with Coorg, the General Officer Commanding the Bangalore District will furnish a force of some 7,500 from the garrisons in the neighbourhood of Coorg, who will assemble at their respective four points of entry and advance independently but simultaneously at the appointed hour (except for the Western Auxiliary Force, which is a corps of observation to cover Mangalore), with intercommunication by cavalry: –

  BANGALORE

  450 bayonets H.M. 39th Regt. and Head-Quarters 450

  4th, 35th, 36th, 48th N.I. 2400

  Rifle Company, 5th N.I. 60

  Sappers and Miners 300

  3210

  One Coy of Foot Artillery: 3 x 12-pounder howitzers

  2 x 5½-inch heavy howitzers

  2 x 5½-inch mortars

  1 x 6-pounder gun

  This force to be divided into two parts, viz.: –

  Under Brevet Colonel Hervey, and termed the ‘Head-Quarter Division’.

  H.M. 6th L.D. (from Madras) 300

  H.M. 39th 300

  4th and 35th N.I. 1200

  Sappers 230

  Rifle Coy 5th N.I. 60

  2090

  6 guns, with a proportion of Artillerymen.

  Under Lieutenant-Colonel Steuart, the reserve, and termed ‘Eastern Column’.

  H.M 39th 150

  36th and 48th N.I. 1200

  Sappers 70

  1420

  2 guns and some Artillerymen.

  CANNAMORE

  Under Lieutenant-Colonel Fowlis, and termed ‘Western Column’.

  H.M. 48th 300

  20th and 32nd N.I. 1200

  Sappers 200

  1700

  Half a Coy of Native Artillerymen: 4 x 6-pounders

  2 x 5½-inch mortars

  MANGALORE

  Under Lieutenant-Colonel Jackson, and termed ‘Western Auxiliary Force’.

  H.M. 48th (from Cannamore) 150

  40th N.I. 400

  Sappers 35

  585

  BELLARY

  Under Colonel Waugh, and termed ‘Northern Column’.

  H.M. 55th 300

  9th and 31st N.I. 1200

  Rifles Coy 24th N.I. 60

  Sappers 200

  1760

  6 x 6-pounder guns, and Artillerymen.

  Hervey read over the letter to Lord Hill that was to accompany his appreciation and plan, and then added: ‘I am confident of speedy success as long as there is no untoward delay in beginning active operations, and I have impressed upon the Government here that point.’

  There was nothing more he could do to safeguard his reputation were the enterprise to fail on account of something that was not of his making. This was India, and the business of the Company. But London took an ever closer interest, to which the new Act bore witness. Besides, he was a King’s officer. His promotion came from the Horse Guards, not Leadenhall Street.

  He signed it ‘Your Lordship’s Most Obedient Servant &c &c …’

  Later, when he’d played Fives with Neale, which he now thought was the perfect exercise for light horsemen, for not only did it agitate the respiratory system, it practised the eye and the sword arm as no other, he would write the same letter to the D
uke of Wellington. He hated the business of advancing self, but when he was a cornet his old major, Joseph Edmonds, had once cautioned him that if he hid – or suffered to be hid – his light under a bushel, then he should not be surprised when lesser men made way with but a flicker of a flame.

  Then, as it were, all venal concerns attended to, he would read over once more the letters from Georgiana which had come that morning after a month and more without, and then write the letter to her that he had long pondered on: ‘Come this time and live with us in Madras …’

  XXIII

  Untoward Delays

  Kushalnagar, 1 April 1834

  HERVEY HAD BEEN booted and spurred since before first light, when the entire Head-Quarter Division had stood to arms against the possibility of a spoiling attack by the Coorgs. An hour later, just after seven, they’d stood down to make breakfast, and Hervey had done the rounds of the campfires. Now, just before nine, the air already heavy, his mare standing with sweated flanks but perfect composure, he sat still in the saddle, watch in hand.

  ‘Well, Captain Neale, despite that we tell them the hour of our coming, and “Tirez les premiers”, by now we’ll have stopped every earth and Madkerry shall be ours presently. I never saw men better found, black or white. Whether we find at Madkerry’s another matter.’

  Neale’s hunting was more the Deccan plains than the English shires, however. ‘That will depend on whether the rajah is more the fox than the jackal. The jackal never goes to earth.’

  Hervey smiled. He was not yet accustomed to the quarry.

  ‘Well, with luck, St Alban will find.’

  ‘I’m sure of it, General.’

  Hervey certainly hoped so – and a good more besides.

  As long as there is no untoward delay in beginning active operations. They’d lost precious time, but perhaps that was his fault for giving Calcutta the option to delay. General O’Callaghan had concurred with him, and so had Somervile: April was the latest they could begin with any likelihood of complete success; and incomplete success in India, where the Company relied so much on its reputation for irresistible superiority, was tantamount to failure. January had passed without a word from Fort William, and then just days before his birthday, when he’d concluded that Calcutta – Bentinck – hadn’t the stomach for the fight after all, the word had come. He was to vest himself as brigadier-general, proceed to Bangalore and assemble the ‘Coorg Field Force’. Since then, the political officers at Mysore and the Coorg resident, under Somervile’s very particular directions, had persisted in their attempts to get the rajah to yield. Towards the end of March, however, all persuasion having failed, the resident delivered the ultimatum. It had expired without answer on the last day of the month, and so now, at nine o’clock, on the first day of April – the latest day by which, as Hervey had advised, active operations must begin – the resident would be serving the formal declaration of war on the Rajah of Coorg (before being taken under escort, blindfold, to the western border).

  ‘I’m sure of it, General.’ It evidently gave Neale satisfaction, but ‘General’ was a temporary courtesy, and for that reason one that Hervey would have rejected had he not thought it would work to his advantage. Generalcy opened doors otherwise held shut, not least by those close in seniority – and, no doubt, superior in their own estimation. The attachment of the political agent to the field force was cause alone. Colonel Fraser was ten years his senior in age, and a Lovat Fraser, always a tricky clan; while Colonel Waugh, commanding the northern column, was likewise senior in years.

  I’m sure of it, General. How could Neale be so sure, however? No matter how capable St Alban was, his task was as speculative as it was perilous. The decision to send on a party to ‘view’, Hervey had made only lately. Three days ago, as they came to Kushalnagar, he’d formally handed command of the Sixth to Major Garratt, but had detached St Alban and six dragoons for what he called ‘special duty’, telling Garratt that he regretted taking his adjutant, but that he’d seen Madkerry and no one else had.

  ‘If anyone’s able to find where exactly the rajah’s laid up, it’s he. And with a half-decent guide St Alban and a few men’ll be able to keep on his line until such time as one of the columns closes up.’

  He did not say it, for he wanted no hesitation in the advance and had therefore made no mention of caltrops, but St Alban was to try also to make contact with the deewah’s man at Madkerry to discover if Somervile’s stratagem had worked. ‘War in India is made with gold and bullock carts,’ Somervile was fond of saying, and he’d sent a good many pagodas to the deewah to do just this. Or rather, to persuade as many at the court in Madkerry – she and her husband had their followers there still – not to make war. How they were to deprive the rajah of those fiendish devices he had no idea, but the promise of an even greater quantity of gold if they did had brought an assurance that they could do so. Somervile hadn’t thought it very likely, but he’d been able to tell his old friend that action was in hand and that therefore he need not trouble his mind. It was no doubt a deception of sorts (just as, indeed, was Hervey’s decision not to speak to his commanders of the threat), but some things were better dealt with by oblivion.

  Garratt had been content enough with St Alban’s reassignment. With Worsley’s troop already detached to Hervey’s column, and no more exacting a job than running a relay line – in which all the corporals had had plenty of practice at Hounslow – he’d said he thought he might bear the loss of a lieutenant without too great a difficulty, especially with Armstrong at his hand. And Hervey had smiled wryly, for Garratt might now wear a dragoon’s red, rather than green, but he retained the infantryman’s instinct not to allow a subaltern officer too great an opinion of his importance.

  They were certainly paying well for the dowras (guides), though how decent these would prove, only time would tell. But the Company had undoubtedly been generous with its gold. By dint of hard riding (though not Minnie, who had bided her time at Kushalnagar), Hervey had been able to see two of the other columns at their assembly points, but Colonel Jackson’s from Mangalore would have taken another day to reach, and his was the least to trouble over, for all he expected them to do was watch. One of the dowras, a Mopla fisherman (with salt fish to prove it), had been so certain of his knowledge that Hervey decided to send his reserve, Colonel Steuart’s column, via a parallel road to his own, which the man said had been cut only last summer. It was a gamble, but with only a few miles between them it might be worth it. Besides, his own column was strong enough to fight its way through. He hadn’t thought there’d be need for a true reserve until they reached Madkerry.

  The very best of the dowras, as far as the deewah’s agent at Kushalnagar was concerned (he certainly bore the scars of his story of torture at the hands of the rajah’s men), Hervey had assigned to St Alban, and with the promise of more pagodas than he’d see in a whole year of plenty.

  The larger hand was now perfectly at its highest point: nine o’clock. ‘I think we may begin,’ said Hervey, closing his watch and turning to the commanding officer of His Majesty’s 39th (Dorsetshire) Regiment of Foot. ‘Colonel Lindesay, your regiment bears the honour Primus in Indus on its colours. Proceed now to be Primus in Coorg, if you please.’

  Lindesay was at least a dozen years older than Hervey, and an Irish peerage added distinction, but he was known by all to be so married to his regiment as to own no ambition – only an infinite pride in its long history, especially its rightful claim to be the first to have served in India. The regiment had fought at Plassey with Clive. Nothing could therefore dismay them now.

  He returned the smile, saluted, reined about and trotted forward to lead his ‘Dorsets’ into another chapter of their history.

  Hervey hoped he’d not expose himself too much.

  For the time being, however, there was nothing he could do but let Lindesay make his way. Fourteen months it had been since he’d first come here, and but for the great bandobast – so many bullock carts, elephants
and all the paraphernalia of a military town on the march – it was not in the least bit different, save that the river was higher. But so much … impedimenta; was this truly how to make war? Here were not so much its sinews, as Cicero had it (‘The sinews of war are infinite money’), but a great bloated belly. Little rapid movement, and even less agility, could be expected from such a form as this. But he couldn’t have it both ways at once: ‘Supply must be contained amply within the elements of each force sufficient to sustain active operations for seven days.’ And men could not fight on biscuit for a whole week.

  There would certainly be no difficulty in crossing the river, at least, for the bridge stood well proud of the water still, and the company of artillery was arraigned in open view. He’d had a strong picket here, with guns, for several weeks, for it was possible that the rajah might try to demolish it. Now, though, with such a show of force – and King’s troops, not just Native – no Coorg who valued his life would risk tirer le premier? Indeed, the more he thought about it, the more impossible the rajah’s position seemed to be. Why, then, if he were a rational man – which he’d certainly thought the case during his audience – did he not now bow the knee to Fort St George? At Hervey’s suggestion, Lindesay was to make a show of artillery as they proceeded, which ought to dissuade even the bravest of the Coorgs from discharging a single shot. Except that, as he very well knew, men under discipline did not answer to reason but to orders.

  He took out his telescope to watch as the advance guard marched onto the bridge, skirmishers out. Halfway across there was a ragged volley from the barricade athwart the road where the customs post stood – much smoke and noise, but no effect. At once the 6-pounder in the embrasure on the approaches sent a round of common shell to the barricade. Three hundred yards, barrel elevation zero, sighted by the captain himself, the round struck fair in the middle just a foot from the top, gouging a cautionary hole and bursting with much noise and many fragments. The defenders fled, save two wounded, but the Thirty-ninth’s skirmishers were over the barricade in seconds and gave a chasing volley. The Coorgs threw down their blades and dropped to their knees.