POLITICAL HISTORY 85
with the capture of Kalaiyarkovil, on the tst October 1801. In a few days Kattaboma Nayakkan and his younger brother were captured, sent to Panjalankurichi and there hanged. Colone] Agnew who had commanded the force in Sivaganga returned to Palamcotta. The Panjalankurichi fort was razed tothe ground; the site was ploughed over and sown with castor seed, and the name of the place was expunged from all the registers of the district. During Colonel Agnew’s absence Mr. Lushington had been busy hunting down gangs of rebels that were still at large; the ‘‘Dalavay Pillai,” one of the chief supporters of Panjalankurichi, fled to the Maravans of Nangunéri for refuge, and a little rebellion which they got up together in October had to be suppressed by troops. Some of the rebels were sent to the fortress of Kamudi in the Ramnad country, others to Madras.
But before the insurgents in Sivaganga and in Nangunéri were reduced, the Tinnevelly district had become a possession of the East India Company. On the fall of Seringapatam and the death of Tippu Sultan in 1799 correspondence came to light which showed that the Nawab had been engaged in a treasonable conspiracy with Tippu. Whilst the matter was under enquiry, the Nawab died, and, as his heir declined to accept the conditions which the Madras Government thought it necessary to impose on him, the NawAbship was given toa junior member of the family. On the 31st July, 1801, an agreement was effected with the new Nawab, by which the sole and exclusive administration of the civil and military Governments of all the territories and dependencies of the Carnatic was handed over to the Company in perpetuity.
On the same day Mr. Lushington was appointed the first Collector of the district under the new sovereign power, and moved from Ramnad to Tinnevelly. A week afterwards he reported to Madras that the “ Province of Tinnevelly has been brought without the smallest disturbance under the Company’s authority.” “By the energy and justice of Government,” he added later, “ the rebellions have been subdued; the oppressed have been upheld and exalted; the obedient have been liberally rewarded; and the extinction of a divided authority has restored the fairest province of the Carnatic from an acknowledged state of anarchy and confusion toa state of subordination and prosperity.”
CHAP. TL.
ENGLISH PERIOD.
Cession of the country to the English.
Mr. Lushington, Collector of Tinnevelly.
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