(1st January 1802), and proceeded towards Calcutta with the intention of returning to his native land with the wreck of his fortune amounting then, according to Major Smith, to a lakh of rupees. He died, however, on his way down, near Barhampur, in the burying-ground of which place he was interred. His career, records the friend already quoted "was more worthy of astonishment than imitation."
Perron was now complete master of the situation. He had beaten all his master's enemies in Hindostan; his master's troops had triumphed in Ujjén. But his double triumph had similarly affected both master and servant. They showed, in this crisis of their fortunes, that prosperity was fatal to them. It exhalted their pride and weakened their judgment.
Perron had had no education, no mental training; he was not gifted with a large mind. A self-made man, he had raised himself from the position of a common sailor to a post which was, in fact, second only to one other in India, and, so long as he had enemies to fight, the animal vigour of his nature had a fit field for its display. But with the dispersion of his enemies the scene of action for that animal vigour disappeared, and his mental power was more largely called upon. In this respect Perron was weak. He began to show undue contempt for the native chieftains; an unjust partiality for his own countrymen; to further his own private interest only; to look upon the interests of Sindia as secondary, not to be placed in the balance against his own.
