st the
English rule in Hindostan, and widened them into a project of all but
world-wide conquest. At this time the strongest and most vigorous of the
Indian powers was that of Mysore, at the southern extremity of the
peninsula, where a Mussulman state had been built up by the genius of an
adventurer, Hyder Ali. In the days when the English were winning their
supremacy over the Carnatic, Hyder had been their chief difficulty; and
his attack had once brought them to the verge of ruin. The hostility of
his son Tippoo was even more bitter; but the victories of Lord
Cornwallis had taught the Sultan of Mysore that he was no match for the
British power single-handed; and his hopes, like those of the United
Irishmen, were fixed upon France. He was striving to get aid from the
Afghans and from the Nizam, but what he most counted on for the
expulsion of the English from the Carnatic was a force of thirty
thousand French soldiers. Letters requesting such a force were
despatched by him to France in 1797. Buonaparte had already fixed on
Mysore as a basis of operations against the British rule in Hindostan;
and after dismissing as impracticable a project suggested to him on his
return from Italy after the treaty of Campo Formio for a descent upon
England itself, he laid before the Directory a plan for the conquest and
occupation of Egypt as a preliminary to a campaign in Southern India.
Utterly as this plan was foiled in the future, it was far from being the
wild dream which it has often been considered. Both the Ministry and
East Indian Directors were roused into anxiety by the first news of
Buonaparte's expedition. The Earl of Mornington, Governor-General of
British India, was warned of a possible attack from the Red Sea. Four
thousand soldiers were hurried off to reinforce his army; while the
English fleet watched anxiously in the Mediterranean. But so perfect was
the secrecy with which the French plans were combined that Buonaparte
was able to put to sea in May 1798 with a force of 30,000 veterans drawn
from the army of Italy, and making himself master of Malta as he passed
to land near Alexandria at the close of June.

[Sidenote: The battle of the Nile.]

The conquest of Egypt proved as easy and complete as Buonaparte had
hoped. The Mamelukes were routed in the battle of the Pyramids; Cairo
was occupied; and the French troops pushed rapidly up the valley of the
Nile. Their general meanwhile showed his genius for government by a