CHAPTER XIV

THE GOVERNOR -GENERALSHIP OF LORD WELLESLEY 1798 - 1805 LORD MORNINGTON, afterwards Marquis Welles- ley, landed at Madras on Ms way to Calcutta in April, 1798, on the same day when the ambassadors of Tippu disembarked at Mangalore on their return from the Isle of France, bringing a rather shabby col- lection of volunteers and an assurance from the French governor that his Republic would soon entertain with pleasure Tippu 's offer of alliance and amity. The in- structions which had followed the Governor-G-eneral unquestionably warranted him in treating these deal- ings with the French as an act of war on the part of Mysore. " As a general principle/' wrote Henry Dun- das, President of the Board of Commissioners for In- dian affairs, in a letter addressed to him, " I have no hesitation in stating that we are entitled under the circumstances of the present time to consider the admis- sion of any French force into Tippu 's army, be it greater or smaller, as direct hostility to us "; and within a few months after reaching Calcutta, Lord Mornington declared that the growth of a French party 306