CORNWALLIS, CHARLES; Earl. Autograph Letter Signed, "Cornwallis," as Governor General of the British Indian Government, to Lord Sydney ( Thomas Townshend), Home Secretary under William Pitt, concerning his arrival in Calcutta to take control of the

CORNWALLIS, CHARLES; Earl. Autograph Letter Signed, "Cornwallis," as Governor General of the British Indian Government, to Lord Sydney ( Thomas Townshend), Home Secretary under William Pitt, concerning his arrival in Calcutta to take control of the government and his disappointment to find that aide-de-camp Captain Monson had been sentby former Governor General John Macpherson to fight for the Nizam against the Tipu. 2.5 pages, folded 4to sheet. Calcutta, 17 September1786 E1,200/1,800 "Having found on my arrival a packet ready to sail for England, I thought it better only to announce my taking possession of the government, & to postpone, until the next opportunity the attempt of entering into the detail of the business ofthis country . . . When I arrived here I was astonished to hear that [Army Commander General] Sloper, partly to get rid of [Monson], & partly to put money into his pocket, had prevailed on Macpherson to let [Monson] go to the Nizam to offer his service to him . . . The sending a Captain in the King's service & aide de camp to the commander in Chief to serve in the Nizam's army against Tipoo [sic] isas much tho' not as effectually taking part in the war as if we had sent ten thousand men . . ." After Cornwallis's bitter defeat in the American Revolution, he was under strict instructions by Pitt not to initiate a military offensive in India against the Tipu. Three years later, however, Cornwallis did side with the Nizam and provoked the Tipu into the Third Anglo-Mysore War. His successes in India rescued his reputa-tion among the British.