[1] However, Baxter was in financial difficulties, and in 1824 Taylor gladly accepted a commission in the service of the Nizam of Hyderabad, with which he remained dutifully attached throughout his long career.

He was speedily transferred from military duty to a civil appointment, and in this capacity acquired a proficient knowledge of the languages and the people of southern India.

This book was followed by a series of tales, Tippoo Sultaun (1840), Tara (1863), Ralph Darnell (1865), Seeta (1872), and A Noble Queen (1878), all illustrating periods in Indian history and society and giving prominence to the native character, institutions and traditions, for which he had great regard.

Colonel Taylor, whose merits were recognized and acknowledged by then by the British government of India – although he had never been in the service of the Company – was subsequently appointed Deputy Commissioner of the western "Ceded Districts".

By perseverance he had risen from the condition of a half-educated youth without patronage, and without even the support of the Company, to the successful government of some of the most important provinces of India, 36,000 square miles (93,000 km2) in extent with a population of over five million.

[5] Richard Garnett commented, "His Confessions of a Thug is a classic adventure novel, which inspired the young of several imperial generations and was much imitated by other colonial fiction writers for over a century.