CHAPTER V
The Third Mysore War
Ever since the treaty of Seringapatam, Tipú had been concerting measures to overthrow the English power in India; he had sent a mission to Constantinople, and another to Zemán Sháh, the ruler of Afghánistán, urging him to invade India; he also announced himself as the champion of the Muhammadan faith, whose mission it was to expel the English 'Kafirs,' as he called them, from the country, and with this object he was in treaty with both the Maráthás and the French. Thus Munro's forecast of the result of the policy of 1792 was verified.
At this juncture Lord Mornington was on his way out to assume the Governor-Generalship, and writing from the Cape, Feb. 28, 1798, to Mr. Dundas, he says:
'The balance of power in India no longer exists upon the same footing on which it was placed by the peace of Seringapatam. The question therefore must arise how it may be brought back again to that state in which you have directed me to maintain it. My present view of the subject is that the wisest course would be to strengthen the Maráthás and the Nizám, by entering into a defensive alliance with the former against Zemán Sháh, and by affording to the latter an
