Captivity Myths: Loan of Rs 330,000

Kanara Christians are alleged to have loaned Rs 330,000 to Mathews, presumably in Mangalore. 

This charge appears as a footnote in a book written by an English chela, James Scurry, published in 1824, over 40 years after when the event was supposed to have taken place. Scurry had died in the meantime. It states: “One Smith, a deserter from the Company’s service, was sent for one morning to read what was written on the bottoms of pewter plates or dishes; but not pleasing the Killadare in deciphering the words, he was sent away, and another, who could read better, ordered to be brought to the durbar, or place of Justice. I was selected; and approaching with fear, I made my salaam with as much reverence as I could to one of the greatest men in the kingdom. He ordered the buxer, or paymaster, to give me one of the dishes. It was very legible and I read it to his satisfaction, interpreted by a youth who was taken with the general; the other three were put into my hands successively and I read them all. The purport was that he knew he was poisoned, and by order of Tippoo; that his time was short; that he must submit to his fate; that he borrowed 330,000 Rupees from the Malabar Christians, for the support of his army, since he left Bombay; closing with a sincere request that those who read what was written (or engraved rather, for it appeared to have been done with a fork or a nail) and should be so fortunate as to reach any of the presidencies, should make it known to the governor and council, when they would be amply rewarded...”[1]

A reference to this incident appeared 33 years earlier in the Calcutta Gazette of December 8, 1791: “At Seringapatam, General Mathews was in confinement, James Skurry was sent for one day to the Cutcherry there, and some pewter plates, with marks on them, were shown to him to explain; he saw on them words to this purport, ‘I am indebted to the Malabar Christians, on account of the public service, forty thousand Rupees; the Company owes me (about) thirty thousand; I have taken poison, and am within a short time of death; whoever communicates this to the Bombay Government, or to my wife, will be amply rewarded.”’ (signed) Richard Mathews.[2]

This account was written by a fellow chela, William Drake, who along with 300 other English sailors, prisoners of the French navy, was handed over into Haidar’s custody. Scurry was one of them. Both escaped when posted to the garrison at Chitradurga.   

Other contemporary sources refer to a letter of June 20, 1783 secreted to the imprisoned officers in which Mathews wrote that the Company owed him Rs 33,000 advanced by him while in command, besides pay and other allowances.[3] Lindsay, an officer and prisoner in Srirangapatna when Mathews died, writes the sum claimed was Rs 40,000. These two British officers independently testified that Mathews claimed only what was owed to him by the Company. There is no reference to any loan made by Kanara Christians.

Official and other accounts reveal that Mathews had no need of any loan, having received adequate amounts towards expenses and salaries. He was, instead, suspected of looting the treasuries of Honavar and Nagar, and to be in collusion with Hyat Sahib, whom he reinstated on an annual salary of Rs 480,000. He claimed the large cache of treasure and jewellery found in the fort was Hyat Sahib’s private property, and could not be included in the prize money. Hyat Sahib, however, claimed later that Mathews had sequestered much of Nagar’s treasure for himself and sent it to Goa or Bombay in his own vessel.

Such was the perception that Mathews had colluded with Hyat Sahib to plunder Nagar’s great treasure, that the army’s senior most officers, Macleod, Humbertstone, and Shaw, sailed to Bombay to seek redress. Macleod charged Mathews of being guilty of a high breach of his duty, and general disrespect and contempt of Government. He asked that be removed from command and suspended from service until he cleared himself of the several charges against him.

The true value of Nagar’s treasury or what happened to it was never investigated. Various estimates made by reliable witnesses including Mathews and Hyat Sahib, however, survive: Rs 32,400,000; heaps of jewels, gold, and silver, and cash of Rs 19,200,000 (Mathews’s secretary); Rs 12,000,000 (Mathews); Rs 9,600,000 plus jewels of considerable value (Hyat Sahib).

Escorted by Captain William Mathews, the general’s brother, Hyat Sahib sailed for Goa from Kundapur on April 8. Capt Mathews delivered 11 of 13 chests of treasure at Honavar Fort, and loaded the other two on General Mathews’s vessel.[4] Thompson values the treasure, apart from jewels and precious stones, found in the fort at not less than Rs 11,000,000. Of this, Rs 3,300,000 was conveyed to Goa. Whiteway, a prisoner at Srirangapatna and close comrade of Scurry and Drake, claims 24 chests filled with treasure were secreted to Bombay.[5]

The fact that Mathews had brought his personal yacht to Kanara drew adverse comment from official sources. Mathews’s wife, Mary Duckett, lived on a yacht anchored off Kundapur.[6] Pe Miranda makes an intriguing reference to Tipu enquiring if Mathews’s wife was in Mangalore fort. Strangely, within four days of accepting the surrender of Mangalore fort, between March 16-18, Mathews visited Tellicherry. In 1785, after Mathews’s death, Mary married Richard Church, a member of the Supreme Council in Bombay, and earlier, the senior most English official in Tellicherry during the war years. The marriage may have been a coincidence. Or could it have had something to do with the disappearance of Nagar’s treasure, and the fact that it was never investigated?  

The alleged loan amount is huge. Annexure A of the Partition Treaty of Mysore, June 22, 1799, places the annual revenue of the districts of Kanara (Mangalore, Bekul, Neleseram, Karkal, Barkur, Kundapur, Bhatkal, Gersoppa, Honavar, Mirjan, Ankola, Punchmal, Shadshivgar, and Bilghi) at pagodas 311,874 or Rs 1,036,000.[7] Could a largely agricultural Christian community, comprising just 2.75% of the population in 1800, raise a third of governmental revenues in the short two-month span it took Mathews to capture Kanara?

There is good reason to believe that the reading of the message inscribed on the pewter plates did take place. Apart from Drake and Scurry, Thompson also mentions it.

The message was first read by a deserter Smith. He was flogged for misinterpretation. Scurry was then called. The messages were interpreted by a prisoner from the soldiers’s prison, Vankatachelliem.

Smith’s flogging suggests an interesting insight: how would the qilledar have known that the writing was being misinterpreted unless he knew what it contained before it was read out? And why was he so keen that it be read out in open court? Was a case being built up?

If Mathews’s real intention had been to ensure the messages reached Bombay or Madras, would he have not have passed it on to his two English servants who witnessed his dying moments instead of inscribing them on plates that would be discovered? The amount inscribed on the plates is identical to the penalty Tipu imposed on the priests exiled to Goa. In his letter of March 24, 1784, to Goa’s governor, accused them of treachery that caused a loss of Rs 30,000,000 to the state, and adds that he had pardoned them from paying a penalty of Rs 300,000.[8]

The most definitive confirmation that the local Christians extended no help to the invading army comes from the articles of surrender and peace treaty itself. The English made sure on including a number of clauses for the protection of those, individuals and communities, who had thrown in their lot with the East India Company. Not one Christian was mentioned.

[1] Scurry, James. 1824. The Captivity, Sufferings and Escape of James Scurry. London: Henry Fisher: 99

[2] Selections from Calcutta Gazettes, 1789-1797, Vol II. 1865. Calcutta: 314

[3] Thompson, William. 1788. Memoirs of the Late War in Asia etc, Vol I. London: 130

[4] The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register, Vol XX. 1825. London: 666

[5] Scurry, James. 1824. The Captivity, Sufferings and Escape of James Scurry. London: Henry Fisher: 304

[6] T W Venn. n.d. Mangalore: 64

[7] House of Commons Parliamentary Papers Online. ProQuest Information and Learning Company, 2005.

[8] Pissulencar. Antigualhas Letter LXXV, p 302; Moncoes, no 164 E, fl 1258, doc no 1