EARL CORNWALLIS, as soon as intelligence of this attempt to force the Lines of Travancore reached him, resolved to act on his already avowed intention, to hold it as a declaration of war. The intended system of neutrality was no longer tenable; he was left to his own dictates, and putting himself in communication with the Nizam and the Mahrattas, formed a triple league against Tippoo. It was settled on the 4th of July, 1790; and for the purpose of effectually humbling the Sultan of Mysore, these powers agreed to furnish each a corps of 10,000 horse, to act in concert with our troops, to be paid by the Company; they also agreed that a British corps should act in concert with each of their armies, and that, at the conclusion of the war, there was to be an equal division of all conquered territory; the British, however, were to have exclusive possession of all forts and

-CONQUEST OF MALABAR, ETC.

territories they might have the good fortune to reduce before the other allies took actual part in the war.

While he was making these arrangements, the Governor-General was not seconded at Madras. Instead of obeying the orders of the Supreme Council issued in conformity with the Regulating Act, Governor Holland acted as if he had a discretionary power, and ignoring instructions on one hand, was contumacious on the other. He certainly ordered a large body of troops to hold themselves ready for instant service; but he rendered the order nugatory by omitting to provide the necessary equipments of draught and carriage bullocks for their artillery and baggage. The consequence was that he was displaced, and succeeded by Colonel William Medows, of the 73rd Highlanders, formerly Governor of Bombay, and having the

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local rank of major-general in India, an officer of high character and great ability, whose first business was, in a soldier-like way, to prepare all that was required for the field.

Meanwhile the Governor-General was busy in Bengal, from whence he quickly dispatched a large amount of specie, munition of war, and a battalion of foot artillery, chiefly gun-lascars, by sea. The high caste Brahmins had certain prejudices against conveyance by water, thus six battalions of sepoys marched under Colonel Cockerell, while, to make the resources of the Carnatic and Tanjore available, application was made to the nabob and the rajah for certain arrears from their revenues, which the Company were to collect during the war, and pay them and their families a sufficient subsistence out of them.

Meanwhile Tippoo was remaining idly before the lines which he had sworn to pass, waiting for heavier cannon and more forces, and the following somewhat prophetic letter was written from Amboor by Major-General Sir Thomas Munro (who must not be confounded with his clansman, Sir Hector, the Colonel of the Black Watch), concerning the Lines of Travancore, while war was pending :

"A second attack is daily expected, and if the rajah is left alone, all his exertions against a force so superior can delay but for a very short time his ruin. The English battalions were behind the lines, but not at the place attacked; and it is said they have orders not to act, even on the defensive. If such be the case, the rajah ought to dismiss them with scorn. The distinction made between recent acquisitions and ancient territory, appears to be a subterfuge of Government to cloak their dread of war under a pretended love of peace; for Cranganore was a fair purchase of the Dutch from the Rajah of Cochin, subject to an annual tribute of thirty-five rupees. Before we can assemble an army to face the enemy, Tippoo may be in possession of Travancore. We have derived but little benefit from experience and misfortune. The year 1790 sees us as little prepared as that of 1780. We shall commence the war under the disadvantage of the want of magazines. The distresses and difficulties which we then encountered from them, have not cured us of the narrow policy of present saving, to a certain, though future great and essential advantage."

While Tippoo held his ground, he drew up, and meanly antedated by fifteen days, a letter which he sent to Madras, purporting that while searching for fugitives, some of his Mysoreans had been fired "Rise, &c., of the British Power in India."

upon by the Nairs, and that he was compelled to retaliate and attack the lines. He further made hypocritical professions of a desire for peace, while working hard at regular approaches towards the lines, in which, after filling up the ditch, he made a clear breach of three-quarters of a mile in length, and bursting into Travancore with his whole army, the most dreadful devastations ensued. That fertile land, the cultivated districts of which abound in grain, sago, and sugar, plantains, coffee, and many aromatic drugs, was rapidly reduced to a desert; the people were hunted down like wild animals by the Mysorean horse, and immense numbers of them were carried off to a captivity worse than death. When Tippoo, after forcing the lines, laid siege to Cranganore-the seaport which the rajah had purchased from the Dutch-Colonel James Hartley, of the 75th Highlanders, had arrived from Bombay with one European (his own) and two sepoy regiments. These were joined by two other battalions-those referred to in the letter of Sir Thomas Munro-but the whole force being too small to act on the offensive, remained cooped up in Ayacotta, opposite Cranganore, but on northern extremity of the island of Vipeen.

Major-General (afterwards Sir William) Medows, after forming a small encampment at Conjeveram, marched from thence on the 24th of May, to assume the command of the main army, which had been assembling on the plain of Trichinopoly, and which was formed in two European, and four native brigades. The 36th and 52nd Foot composed the first of these, under the command of Major Skelly of the 74th Highlanders, which, along with the 1st and 3rd Native Brigades, formed the left wing of the army under Colonel James Stuart of the 72nd Highlanders; the second brigade consisted of the 71st and 72nd Highland Regiments, and the 1st European Battalion of the Company. The horse were the 2nd and 5th Native Cavalry, with some companies of Bengal Artillery under Colonel Deare. †

This was called the great Southern Army, and mustered 16,700 men. By the 9th of the same month, Cranganore and another small fort had been stormed by Tippoo with little resistance.

On the same evening when Medows took the command, the line was drawn out, all his final arrangements made, and at two o'clock in the morning of the 26th, the army began its march, by Caroor, in the Coimbatore district, for Dindigul in the country of the enemy.‡

Tippoo was now falling back, but before quitting
"Hist. Rec. 52nd Regiment."
London Gazette, 1791.

Travancore, he gratified his vanity by converting the destruction of the famous lines into a public ceremony. Parading without arms, the whole army of Mysore marched by divisions to their appointed stations. Tippoo, with a pickaxe, struck the first blow; the sirdars and courtiers followed his example, and then the entire forces; all kinds of camp-followers took part in the work of destruction, which, in six days, was complete.

On the 15th of June our troops were before Caroor, a town forty-two miles distant from Trichinopoly, having a large temple and fort. The latter was taken, repaired, and strengthened, to render it a place for leaving stores and the sick; and about this task the engineers at once set to work, while Captain Parr was appointed commandant.*

The plan of the intended campaign, as adopted by General Medows, was simple enough. His main body, after reducing Palaghaut and all the forts in the Coimbatore district, was to ascend to the table-land of Mysore by the Pass of Gujelhetty, while another force, composed chiefly of troops expected from Bengal, was to penetrate from the centre of Coromandel straight into the Baramahal. But so sickly and unfavourable was the season, that more than 1,200 men were sent back unfit for duty to the luckily-established hospital at Caroor, before a shot was fired by the main army.

On the 21st the latter had an alerte for the first time, when 300 of Tippoo's irregular horse fell suddenly upon some of our camp-followers, maiming and barbarously mutilating all whom they failed to slay. At nine a.m. the trumpets sounded; the cavalry pickets turned out, and advanced beyond the grand-guard, led by Colonel John Floyd of the (old) 19th Light Dragoons, an officer who had distinguished himself at the battle of Emsdorff, and died in 1816, a baronet and Governor of Tilbury

He advanced with such spirit, that the enemy gave way; but he did not deem pursuit then prudent. These irregulars, distinguished by the name of Looties (from loot, the Indian word for military plunder), continued their sudden attacks for two or three days, till they were attacked and utterly dispersed by our cavalry, while, steel ringing on steel, cheers on Mohammedan yells, were heard to echo in the leafy tope; and their leader was taken, after a gallant hand-to-hand combat, by Cornet Forbes of the 3rd Native Horse: "Mr. Forbes received the first cut, in the hand, but soon brought down his antagonist, by two severe wounds in his face and arm. The swords of these people are long and of fine temper; but their horses are by no means good."+

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On the 10th July, the forces were at Darapooram near the Amaravati river. There they found the fort abandoned, but abundance of grain left, enough, indeed, to serve the army six weeks; so a garrison was put therein under Captain Swain, with the iron eighteen-pounders, and all the tents and heavy baggage. It had been expected to overtake Tippoo at Coimbatore, but he was already above the Ghauts.

On the 23rd of July, Colonel Stuart was detached to reduce Palaghaut, or Palaghautcherry, as it bears both names; but, unfortunately, in making this movement, the nature of the climate had not been considered. The south-west monsoon had set in, and when Colonel Stuart was only twenty miles to the west of his destination, he became so entangled between two mountain torrents, that he was compelled, with the utmost difficulty, to make his way back to headquarters; yet he had with him a fine force, the flower of whom were the 72nd Highlanders, "upwards of 1,000 of the men being healthy, seasoned to the climate, well-disciplined, and highly respectable in their moral conduct.”‡

The colonel's destination was therefore changed, and he was dispatched above 100 miles south-west to Dindigul, while a column under Colonel Oldham, of the Company's service, was selected for the capture of Erode, on the Cauvery, northward of Caroor, and on the best route from it to the Gujelhetty Pass. In the meantime, Colonel John Floyd, with all the cavalry of the army, including his own corps, H.M. 19th Light Dragoons, and a brigade of light infantry, had come in contact with a great force of Mysore cavalry, whom Tippoo, on leaving Coimbatore, had left under Seyed Sahib, with orders to harass the British troops.

It chanced that on the evening of the 16th August, the colonel, attended by four officers, and sixteen dragoons, when riding forward to reconnoitre, came suddenly upon a great body of Seyed Sahib's cavalry, who instantly formed to receive him. Without a moment's hesitation, the gallan! Floyd, at the head of only twenty sabres, cut a passage right through them, killing twenty-five, taking nine horses, and three men prisoners. The colonel had but one man killed. By a series of brilliant movements, Seyed Sahib was driven pellmell, northward to the Bhowani, a river which flows eastwards from the Neilgherry Hills, and ultimately was pressed so closely, that for safety, he ascended the Ghauts, by this retreat leaving the whole country open to Colonel Stuart, who was enabled to reach Dindigul without firing a shot.

On the 17th of August, his troops were before
General Stewart, vol. ii. London Gazette, 1791.

this place, which has been already described; but within the preceding six years it had been strongly rebuilt on an improved plan, with fourteen additional guns and a mortar; and as these improvements were unknown to the colonel, he had neither a requisite siege train nor ammunition, yet by the 21st he effected a species of breach, The storming party, consisting of the flank companies of the 52nd, and some native troops, led by Major Francis Skelly, 74th Highlanders, advanced to the attack in the dark; but the attempt failed, the troops fell back, with the loss of thirty men killed and one officer mortally wounded.

Next morning, to the astonishment of all, the killedar held out a white flag and surrendered; on this, the fortress was garrisoned by Colonel Stuart, who at once advanced against Palaghautcherry, which he invested on the 10th of September, 1791, and threw up two batteries within 500 yards of the walls, and on the same day a practicable breach was made. The Gazette states, that prior to this, General Medows, by a flag of truce, had informed "the killedar, that if he obliges us to open one gun against it, no terms would be given to him or his garrison, but that every one of them should be put to death." Whether or not this stern announcement influenced the Mysorean, it is impossible to say, but the assault was spared by a capitulation, and by his kind treatment of the natives, Colonel Stuart so won their affections, that his bazaar assumed the aspect of a provincial granary, and he was able to leave the new garrison provisions for six months, and take back with him a month's grain for the whole army, which he rejoined on the 15th of October near Coimbatore.

During these operations, Colonels Oldham and Floyd had not been idle. On the 6th of August, the former had effected the complete reduction of Erode (or Errouad), a fortified town (which had of old belonged to the Naiks of Madura) on the Coleroon river. The garrison, 200 strong, fired briskly on his force, till they were silenced by the fine practice with a brass eighteen-pounder, and capitulated.

The latter officer had made himself master of Satimangalam, a strong fortress and town with a temple of Vishnu; and thus a line of forts was established from Caroor to the Gujelhetty Pass, through which General Medows hoped to march before the end of October, and the last of these was held by Colonel Floyd with a force of 2,000

began to descend the Gujelhetty Pass at the head of his cavalry chiefly. Of this movement the active Floyd had early intelligence, and wrote instantly to General Medows announcing it, and suggesting a junction of all our forces, as these were considerably dispersed, a third being under the general at Coimbatore, another column under Colonel Stuart thirty miles in the rear, and the rest being with Floyd sixty miles in advance, he requested leave to fall back; but as the descent of Tippoo was not believed, he was ordered to hold his ground.

"My corps," says the colonel, in his report to headquarters early in September, 1790, "was augmented after the forcing of Satimangalam, so that it consisted of the King's Regiment (19th Light Dragoons), and sixteen squadrons of native cavalry, H.M. 36th Regiment, and four battalions of native infantry, with eleven pieces of cannon served by the Bengal Artillery. One battalion garrisoned Satimangalam, and the rest of my corps was encamped near it, on the south side of the Bhowani.”

Hearing that the enemy were certainly coming on, Colonel Floyd, as the country in front was intersected by almost impenetrable enclosures of prickly shrubs, early on the morning of the 13th September, sent forward three squadrons of our 19th, under Captain-Lieutenant W. G. Child, of that corps, with Major Darby's cavalry in support, to reconnoitre the fort of Poongur on the Bhowani. To this there were two roads-one winding by the stream, and the other more direct, at some distance from it. Child's troopers, after meeting a body of Tippoo's horse at the ford, beating and forcing them into the river, where many were slain or drowned, returned by the former road; but Darby's cavalry took the latter, and had ridden along it but a few miles, when they were suddenly attacked by a strong force, and saw large bodies of the sultan's horse hovering, with lance and shield, in every direction. Nevertheless, Major Darby made a brave resistance, till Floyd came on with all the cavalry to his relief, on which the whole fell back, after killing 400 of the enemy.

This was but the prelude to tougher work. A large column of Tippoo's troops began to descend the northern bank of the stream, while another came rapidly on from the west. Floyd had only time to change his front, and post his infantry where their flank could not be turned, when Tippoo opened a distant cannonade from fifteen (deserters said nineteen) of his light galloper guns, the fire of which was continued during the whole day, and caused many casualties. Among the killed were Colonel Deare, of the Bengal Artillery, and Lieutenant Kelly Armstrong, of the