t the end of the third Mysore War the British exacted
harsh terms from Tipu: the loss of nearly half his territory,
payment of a large reparation, and the surrender of two
of his sons Abdul Khalik and Moiz-Ud-Din,
as hostages. They were delivered to Lord
Cornwallis at Seringapatam on 26 February 1792 and the
Madras Council voted 1,663 pagodas for their accommodation
in the fort at Madras.
The artist has included a portrait of himself in the composition:
he stands in the left foreground, holding a portfolio. In
the distance, the tents of the British encampment are visible.
Robert Home was official war
artist for the 3rd Mysore War, and the son of a Scotsman
from Berwick. Another Scotsman, Major
Dirom, who also served in the 3rd Mysore War, published
his comprehensive 'Narrative' of the campaign in 1793. In
it, he describes this momentous event in vivid detail:
'On the 26th about noon, the Princes left the fort, which
appeared to be manned as they went out, and every where
crouded (sic) with people, who, from curiosity or affection,
had come to see them depart. The Sultan himself, was on
the rampart above the gateway. They were saluted by the
fort on leaving it, and with twenty-one guns from the park
as they approached our camp, where the part of the line
they passed, was turned out to receive them. The vakeels
conducted them to the tents which had been sent from the
fort for their accommodation, and pitched near the mosque
redoubt, where they were met by Sir John Kennaway, the Mahratta
and Nizam's vakeels, and from thence accompanied by them
to head quarters.
The Princes were each mounted on an elephant richly caparisoned,
and seated in a silver howder (sic), and were attended by
their father's vakeels, and the persons already mentioned,
also on elephants. The procession was led by several camel
harcarras, and seven standard-bearers, carrying small green
flags suspended from rockets,
followed by one hundred pikemen, with spears inlaid with
silver. Their guard of two hundred Sepoys, and a party of
horse, brought up the rear. In this order they approached
head quarters, where the battalion of Bengal Sepoys, commanded
by Captain Welch, appointed for their guard, formed a street
to receive them.'
Dirom's text continues with a perceptive description of
Tipu's young sons.
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