On witnessing the rigour and injustice of these soldiers, Hydur Alí was greatly excited and enraged, and determined to punish them; when, at the same time, the Raja, Nundi Raj, &c. placing entire confidence in Hydur, sent to him, through the medium of a woman who sold herbs, an account of the misery of their situation, from the oppression of these faithless soldiers, and begged his assistance, in obtaining a settlement of their disputes with them.— Hydur Alí, in reply, sent verbally all the consolation and comfort he thought necessary at that moment, and professed his friendly wishes to do them service. On the ensuing day, therefore he sent word to the mutinous Jamadárs, that he, also, was one of the claimants or creditors of the govern­ment, and that he had been employed on hard service for months, without any pay or assistance whatever, and that, if they would allow him, he would join them, and thus obtain the settlement of his own demands; but that they might be cer­tain that, until they opened the fire of their guns and rockets on the Dewaun Khana, and Zanana, (or the palace) of the Raja, and showered a tempest of shot on these places like hail, and until they filled the heads of the conceited occupants* with the black smoke of their artillery and musketry, they would never submit to follow the right path. If they chose he said to act on his suggestion, well,— if not,— the surrounding suburbs of the city were rich and populous; and, besides them, there was the whole country of Mysore, from which, if he thought proper, he could collect his dues with­out difficulty.

When the Jamadárs heard this excellent advice from Hydur, they began to fear that he would carry his plan into execution, by plundering their houses, which they had built in the Bahadúr Poora, near the old Eed Gah, a little to the westward of the battery of Muhammad Alí, commandant, and which part of the suburbs was very populous. They, therefore, gave him leave to enter the fort, with a few men; but Hydur, that Lion of the forest of courage and enterprize, without the least delay, accompanied by two light guns, seven or eight hun­dred regular infantry, and two hundred spear men on foot, entered the fort, and, having posted his men in parties at different places, visited the Raja and the Dulwai, and offered consolation and com­fort to them. Then, after having also pleased the Jamadárs with kind and flattering words and speeches, and having attracted the hearts of high and low to him by his affable manners, he returned to his encampment. The next day he entered the fort, accompanied by the same number of men as before, and now told the Jamadárs that, as there was no guard on the Zanana, or women’s apart­ments, of the Raja or Dulwai, he would place his own foot soldiers on them, that they might stop all supplies of water and other necessaries to their inhabitants; and, the Jamadárs having yielded to this proposal, he immediately sent for two thousand foot, well armed, and posted guards on the Zananas of the Raja and Dulwai, and, in short in the course of two or three days, he secured, or made himself master of, all the roads and lanes leading to the palace.

The day after this he proceeded to the Private Hall of audience,* and having placed a number of his attendants under pretence of Dhurna in the inside of the Hall, which is called Chutr Duddi, or Doori,* he of a sudden came out, and told the Jamadárs that a settlement of his and their demands had been effected; but, that the regular accounts of their monthly pay must be entered into the Duftur, or register of the Tosha Khona, (or trea­sury) and that they might then take their money. That, they must take up their beds, therefore, from the palace, and carry them away, and then, with the Vakeel or agent of the Risala or troop, and one Mutsuddi, (or writer) attend, the Kutcheree,* that their monthly accounts might be made up, and their claims discharged; also that, if they had any other intentions he thought they would in the end repent of them. Having said this, he ordered his men to keep the Jamadárs, with a Vakeel and Mutsuddi each, present in the Hall, and turn the remainder of their men out of the fort. As his brave soldiers were drawn up in com­panies, parading about the streets and markets, with their drums beating, and handling their arms, the Jamadárs, seeing the posture of affairs, lost their colour,* and submitted to Hydur’s pleasure and commands, and with an accountant or two, each repaired to the Kutcheree, where the astute Hydur himself examined the monthly pay lists of each Jamadar, and, causing a memorandum of each, to be taken, kept it by him; while, to compare the numbers in the returns with the numbers present for duty, he demanded an actual muster. For, in fact, the Jamadárs of a thousand horse had present at that time only six hundred; those of five hundred, but three hundred, and those of two hundred but half as many; although, by the collusion of the writers of the Pay Office, and the Vakeels or agents of the regiments, they extorted pay for the full complement, and, for actual muster, played at hide and seek;* as soon as the clear-headed Hydur under­stood this excessive roguery,* he immediately sent for the Jamadárs and took the muster of their men and horses; and, being much vexed at the villany of the accountants of the Treasury, he deducted the amount overdrawn for absent or non-effectives, from the day on which the Jamadárs and their companies were received into the service, to the very day he mustered them; and made up and settled their accounts on that scale. Now, as, by reckoning, in this mode, Jamadárs, instead of creditors, were made debtors to the State in a large amount, in order, to discharge the same, they were obliged to give up their horses, camels, elephants, tents and utensils, and even their clothes, of all which he took a regular account, and then dis­charged them. But, of the Jamadárs, any one who had been his companion in the field and at board, to him he paid his money in a certain mode, and reengaged him. As, in this way, a body of five or six thousand of these men were ruined, their horses were taken by Hydur Alí, and sent to his own stables, and, in place of their riders, he hired Bar­geers, (men enlisted as cavalry to ride the govern­ment horses) and in this manner he surmounted his difficulties.