EMPIRE
ON
THE
SEVEN SEAS
doubtedly
did
much
to
give
the
rural
Dutch
a
sense of
inferiority
and
resentment,
and even
tended to
reduce
them to
the
status
of
"poor
whites."
Britain
had
treated
Holland
generously
in the
peace
treaties
and
paid
a
good
round
sum
fpr
her
South African
possessions,
but
her
citizens
in
the
transferred
territory
naturally
did not
take
kindly
to
the cession.
The
very
fact
of
change
of
con-
trol
and the
problems
it
inevitably
raised
were
the seeds of future
strife.
The
Cape,
however,
was not
only
a
market but
it
occupied
for
the route
to
India,
before
the
days
of
the Suez
Canal,
somewhat
the
position
of
Gibraltar
for the Mediterranean.
In
India
itself the
period
was
marked
by
the
complete
and final
subjugation
of the
Marathas
and
the annihilation
of
the
Pindaris.
With these
events
came
the
pacification
of all the
central
part
of the
peninsula.
In
1826
British rule was also extended
to
Burma,
the
Burmese
having
foolishly
attacked
India,
pushing
in their boats
even
up
to
Cal-
cutta.
The
tattooing
of their
bodies
with
pictures
of
ferocious beasts
to
frighten
the
British
failed of
its
object
and was
poor
defense
against
the firearms of
the
enemy
they
had
wantonly
attacked.
Yet,
although
no match
for
their
opponents,
they
could
fight
well
under certain
conditions,
but,
as
they
gave
no
quarter
and
executed
all
prisoners
taken,
the
two
years'
war
developed
into a cruel one
on
both
sides.
Exaggerated
accounts became
current
both as to the
ferocity
of
the
Burmese
and
as
to
British
defeats,
which,
together
with cer-
tain
real and
alleged grievances
connected with
military
service,
resulted
in
a
mutiny by
Sepoy
troops
at
Barrackpur,
in
India,
an
ominous
forerunner of the
great
mutiny
a
generation
later. The
trouble
centered
chiefly
in
the
4yth
Native
Infantry,
which
re-
fused
to
obey
orders,
and
which,
after
ample
warning
had
been
given,
were
fired on on
the
parade
ground.
Many
were
killed,
five
ringleaders
were
executed,
and
hundreds were sentenced
to
fourteen
years'
hard
labor.
In
1828 Lord
Cavendish-Bentinck arrived
as
Governor-General
to
find
disordered
finances
and
much
to
reform.
In
spite
of the fact
that
one
of
his
economy
measures
involved
the
licensing
of the
di-
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