he subsistence of the troops
must be certain upon the proposed service, or the service must be
relinquished.

_Dispatch, Feb. 18, 1801._

* * * * *

_Indignant rejection of a proffered Bribe._

You inform me that the Rajah, or Dessaye of Kittoor, has expressed a
wish to be taken under the protection of the British Government; and has
offered to pay a tribute to the company, and to give you a bribe of 4000
pagodas, and me one of 10,000 pagodas, provided this point is arranged
according to his wishes.

I cannot conceive what can have induced the Rajah of Kittoor to imagine
that I was capable of receiving that or any other sum of money, as an
inducement to do that which he must think improper, or he would not have
offered it. But I shall advert to that point more particularly
presently.

The Rajah of Kittoor is a tributary of the Mahratta Government, the head
of which is an ally, by treaty, of the honourable company. It would be,
therefore, to the full as proper, that any officer in command of a post
within the company's territories, should listen to and enter into a plan
for seizing part of the Mahratta territories, as it is for you to listen
and encourage an offer from the Rajah of Kittoor to accept the
protection of, and transfer his allegiance and tribute to the honourable
company's government. In case you should hear anything further upon
this subject from the Rajah of Kittoor, or in future from any of the
chiefs of the Mahrattas on the frontier, I desire that you will tell
them what is the fact, that you have no authority whatever to listen to
such proposals, that you have orders only to keep up with them the usual
intercourse of civility and friendship, and that if they have any
proposals of that kind to make, they must be made in a proper manner to
our superiors. You may, at the same time, inform them that you have my
authority to say that the British government is very little likely to
take advantage of the misfortunes of its ally, to deprive him, either of
his territories or of the allegiance or tribute due to him by his
tributaries.

In respect to the bribe offered to you and myself, I am surprised that
any man in the character of a British officer should not have given the
Rajah to understand that the offer would be considered as an insult; and
that he should not have forbidden its renewal, than that he should have
encouraged it, and even offered to receive a quarter of t