COORG. No. XXXI. No. XXXI. ARTICLES of AGREEMENT entered into between ROBERT TAYLOR, Esquire, Chief, &c., 1st.-A firm and perpetual friendship shall subsist between both parties as long as the sun and moon shall endure. 2nd. Tippoo Sultan and his adherents shall be considered as the common enemy of both parties, and in the prosecution of the war in which the English are at present engaged, the Coorg Rajah shall, whenever it may be in his power, do his utmost to distress the enemy, and to admit the English troops at any time to pass through his dominions, should they have occasion to penetrate the enemy's country from this coast; he moreover engages to furnish them with such supplies of provisions as the country can afford at reasonable rates, and to join the English army with such a force as he can spare whenever any operations are carried on above the Ghats or in the country of Tippoo Sultan. 3rd.-The Rajah engages to give the Company the preference in purchasing, at a reasonable and moderate price, such articles of commerce as are produced in his country and the Company may want, and he engages not to permit any other European nation to interfere in this respect. 4th.-The English East India Company engage to do every thing in their power to render him, the Coorg Rajah, independent of Tippoo, in the same manner as the other powers who have entered into an alliance with the Company, and they shall, whenever a peace takes place, insist upon it as an express stipulation, that the Coorg Rajah shall be considered as the friend and ally of the Honourable Company, and in no manner subject to the authority and control of Tippoo, of whom he shall be declared totally independent. 5th. Should the Rajah's family or that of any of his subjects have occasion in the present troubles to take refuge in Tellicherry, the Company engages to receive them at the foot of the Ghats and conduct them in safety to Tellicherry under a guard of sepoys, where they will find an asylum, and be protected during the troubles; a house shall be provided for them during their residence at Tellicherry, and the families shall be returned in safety whenever required. In testimony of the COORG. perpetual friendship that shall subsist between both parties, which neither party will ever disturb, we jointly call God, the sun, the moon, and the Nos. XXXI. world to witness this our agreement and mutual pledge of faith. Concluded at Tellicherry this 26th day of October in the year of the Christian era 1790, by Robert Taylor, Chief, &c., Factors, in the names of the English East India Company, the Governor General of Bengal, and the Governor of Bombay on the one part, and Alory Virarajah on the other, each of the parties present, that is to say, the Chief and Factors of Tellichery and Alory Virarajah of Coorg, having hereunto put their name and seals at Tellicherry, the day and year above written, and mutually exchanged copies of this Agreement. & XXXII. No. XXXII. ENGAGEMENT with the RAJAH of COORG in 1793. Alory Virarajah of Coorg being desirous that the situation in which he stands with regard to the Honourable English East India Company may be clearly understood by all their servants, I hereby declare and certify : 1st. That the said Rajah at the commencement of the late war with Tippoo Sultan (the Rajah being then in possession of the greatest part of the Coorg country, the remainder of which he afterwards recovered without the aid of the Company) offered his assistance to the Honourable Company, which was accepted, and an agreement was accordingly entered into between him on his own part, and Robert Taylor Esquire, Chief of Tellicherry, on the part of the Company, as will appear by the records of that settlement. 2nd. That the Rajah entered most heartily into the war, and supplied the Bombay army under my command with a quantity of grain and cattle, without which the troops would have been greatly distressed, and for which the Rajah has hitherto declined taking any pecuniary compensation. 3rd. That from the commencement of the war till its conclusion the Rajah continued most firmly attached to the interests of the Company, notwithstanding the repeated attempts of Tippoo to seduce him. COORG. 4th.-That in March last, in settling the Articles of the Treaty of Nos. XXXII. peace at Seringapatam, Lord Cornwallis, in consideration of the noble & XXXIII. and disinterested conduct of the Rajah, determined to render him entirely independent of Tippoo, and to extend to him and his country the protection of the Company; the numberless objections that were made to this were over-ruled, and the tribute amounting to eight thousand (8,000) Hoons, said to have been annually paid to Tippoo from the Coorg country, was transferred to the Company. 5/h. That the Rajah readily agrees to pay to the Company eight thousand (8,000) Hoons annually for their friendship and protection, though he declares that Tippoo Sultan never received that sum from his country. 6th. That no interference was ever intended on the part of the Company in the interior management of the Rajah's country, trusting that a Prince possessing the most liberal sentiments will make the happiness of his people his constant study. Given under my hand and seal at Cannanore this day the thirty-first of March in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninetythree. N. B.-The Hoons are reckoned at three Rupees each, the sum therefore that the Rajah will have to pay annually at Tellicherry amounts to Rupees twenty-four thousand. CANNANORE, 3rd April 1793. (Signed) ROBERT ABERCROMBY. No. XXXIII. The Right Honourable the Governor General having announced to Alory Virarajendra Wodyar, Rajah of Coorg, by letter under date the 30th April 1799, his determination to relinquish the tribute payable by the said Rajah to the Honourable Company, and only to require COORG. hereafter some annual acknowledgment of the Company's claim to his allegiance: In pursuance of powers vested in me by John Spencer, Esquire, No. XXXIII. President of the Commission in Malabar, under the immediate authority of the Bombay Government, for carrying into effect the intentions above adverted to of the Right Honourable the Earl of Mornington, I hereby declare and certify that the acknowledgment substituted accordingly is in future to consist of one trained elephant, which elephant Alory Virarajendra Wodyar, Rajah of Coorg, pledges himself to present annually to the Honourable English East India Company in proof of fealty and entire devotion on his part to the government of the said Company. Given under my hand and the seal of the Honourable Company, at Virarajendra Peti, this sixteenth day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine. Company's (Signed) D. MAHONY, Late Resident with the To the most high and august English Circar. The Sadana Krama or deed of acknowledgment of Alory Virarajendra Wodyra of the Koduga Samstanam. For the services rendered by me to the English Circar the Right Honourable the Earl of Mornington Bahadoor, Governor General, &c., &c., &c., on the 26th day of the month Chytra of the year Siddartee (30th April 1799), in his friendship wrote to me that on that day he had relinquished to me the Rupees 24,000 that by agreement I annually paid to the Circar, and that the Honourable Jonathan Duncan, Governor of Bombay, would through the medium of Captain Mahony, the English Resident with me, fix upon some token to be annually given in future in acknowledgment and as a memorial of my subjection and fidelity to the Circar, which he required me annually to perform. COORG. In conformity to this letter Captain Mahony and me being in Nos. XXXIII. Virarajendra Pete, the relinquishment of the Nickadee which by mutual & XXXIV. consent has been annually paid from my country to the Circar, was this day made agreeable to the Company's orders and with infinite satisfaction to me, and in return I am to train and present annually to the Circar an elephant, in token to all the world of my fidelity and filial attachment, even as the son of her own womb, to the Circar that protects me, and for which a sadana krama is executed by both parties and interchanged this day, being Wednesday the 18th of the month of Asknajee of the year Siddartee of the Cally Yuggun 4,901 or 16th October 1799. Seal and signature of the KODUGA RAJAH. No. XXXIV. PROCLAMATION OF WAR with COORG in 1834. The conduct of the Rajah of Coorg has for a long time past been of such a nature as to render him unworthy of the friendship and protection of the British Government. Unmindful of his duty as a ruler, and regardless of his obligations as a dependent ally of the East India Company, he has been guilty of the greatest oppression and cruelty towards the people subject to his government, and he has evinced the most wanton disrespect of the authority of, and the most hostile disposition towards, the former, from whom he and his ancestors have invariably received every degree of kindness and protection. It would be needless to enumerate the several instances of his misconduct; but it is sufficient to state that, in consequence of an asylum. having been afforded in the British territories to his own sister Devamajee and her husband Chenna Basavappa, who to preserve their lives had fled from his oppression, the Rajah has presumed to address letters, replete with the most insulting expressions, to the Governor of Fort St. George and the Governor General of India; that he has assumed an attitude of hostility and defiance towards the British Government; that |