The right attack was made by the light companies of the 71st and 72nd (Highlanders), supported by a battalion company of the latter corps; the left attack, by the flank companies of the 76th and the grenadiers of the 52nd; the centre attack, under Major Hugh Fraser, of the 72nd, by the grenadiers and two battalion companies of that regiment, two companies of the 52nd, the grenadiers of the 71st, and four companies of sepoys, supported by the 6th Battalion of Sepoys; the whole under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Colebrook Nisbett, of the 52nd Regiment."*

"Hist. Rec. Oxford Light Infantry."

the breach, but the fury with which the stormers came on appalled them; they gave way, and Nisbett, with the loss of only five men, fought his way into the heart of the place.

In the same bold and rapid manner our troops captured Savangherry, Rahgaherry, Ootradroog, and other places, leaving the way open to Seringapatam ; and, in the meantime, had no other enemy to contend with but the deadly climate.

Tippoo, who began to perceive the moral effect these rapid 'conquests were having among his people, thought to counteract them by an expedition southward, and made a sudden attack on Coim

batore, compelling our garrison there to capitulate on honourable terms, which respected their liberty. These terms the brutal tyrant, as usual, violated, and sent the whole garrison prisoners to Seringapatam, subjecting them to every conceivable indignity and cruelty. Tippoo, it is supposed, "probably considered that, even if ultimately defeated, he might execute vengeance on such men as he could get into his power-the English, in the former war, having shown such indifference to the fate of the prisoners he had murdered when they came to terms of peace."

Before the preceding October had far advanced, supplies of men and money had come from Britain, including two companies of Royal Artillery, under Major David Scott, and 300 soldiers from St. Helena, who could endure the Indian climate better than those who came direct from Europe; while from Madras and Bengal the reinforcements and stores poured into Mysore from one side, those which came from home and Bombay were organised to ascend the Ghauts on the other.

Nothing now delayed our advance upon Seringapatam but the detention of the army of Nizam Ali before Goorumconda, the siege of which had been begun in September, and where little progress had been made until the breaching-guns from Nundydroog were sent thither. Still more would this siege have been protracted, had not Captain Andrew Reade, H.E.I.C.S., who commanded the British detachment, been permitted to take his own way, and storm the lower fort, by which access to the upper could alone be gained. In this he succeeded. The garrison were hemmed in, and the siege became a blockade. As a detachment sufficed for this, the main body of the Nizam's army was marched to join the Governor-General. It had not proceeded far, when tidings came that, in consequence of the rashness of Hafiz Jee, the officer left in command of the lower fort, that place had been recaptured. In a sally he had been suddenly overwhelmed by 12,000 cavalry and infantry, led by Tippoo's eldest son, Hyder Sahib; thus the army of the Nizam had again to retrace its steps, and resume the blockade of Goorumconda.

Cornwallis, brother of the earl-an officer who had distinguished himself as captain of the Zion in the battle off Grenada in 1779, in the following year at Monte Christo, and elsewhere-having received intelligence that some neutral ships, under French colours, were expected to arrive on the coast of Malabar, laden with guns and stores for Tippoo's army, dispatched the Thomas, Vestal, and Minerva frigates, with orders to examine strictly all vessels they might fall in with. The commodore joined them shortly after with the Crown (sixty-four), and the Phonix (thirty-six), whose Captain, G. Anson Byron, was of the same family as the poet.

At six o'clock on the evening of the 23rd, when cruising northward of Tellicherry, while the Phenix and Atalanta were at anchor in the roads, two French ships and a brig were discovered in the offing; and it being the Atalanta's guard, she got under weigh to overhaul them, followed by her consort; there was, however, little wind, and the Frenchman crept into Mahé Roads.

Captain Foot, of the former vessel, sent an officer on board; but they would not permit an examination, until our marines tore off the hatches, and the vessels were found to be laden only with merchandise. The next affair, however, proved more serious.

Early in November, the Résolue, French frigate, of thirty-two guns and 200 men, came into Mahé Roads, and at two a.m., on the 19th, sailed in company with two merchantmen. At daylight, the commodore, who was at anchor off Tellicherry, discovered them in the offing, and signalled to the Phenix and Perseverance to weigh and pursue them. The Phonix came up with them off Mangalore, where the French captain hailed them to know what was wanted. Sir Richard Strachan immediately replied that he had orders to board the two merchant ships, and that he would send an officer on board, in courtesy, to explain the reason.

Among the latter,

1791.]

297

As we were not yet at war with France, this encounter caused some excitement at home, all the more so that the two merchantmen, on being closely searched, were found not to have any contraband of war on board.

And now, shortly after the Christmas recess, in 1791, Mr. Philip Francis, to the great delight of all demagogues, and those "Friends of the People," who were the bitterest enemies of their native country, took an opportunity to assail, with all his powers of venom and invective, the war in India; and had the effrontery to eulogise as an excellent, ill-used, and most amiable prince, Tippoo, Sultan of Mysore. "It was as impolitic as it was unjust," he asserted, "to think of extending our territories in Hindostan; that it was equally impolitic to embarrass ourselves with alliances among the native princes, who were eternally quarrelling among themselves, and attempting to destroy one another; that if such alliances were to be formed, Tippoo would be a much better ally for us than the Rajah of Travancore, the Mahrattas, and the Nizam of the Deccan, for Tippoo had an army of 150,000 men, an admirable train of artillery, and a wellfilled treasury."

Mr. Francis then proceeded to move thirteen resolutions for the purpose of censuring the cause, and precluding a continuance of the war, which he asserted to have been declared without cause, conducted without skill, ruinous in its expenditure, and would never prove of the least advantage. To this view of matters, and these assertions, Pitt and Henry Dundas replied at length, and with vigour. They urged "that the Rajah of Travancore had an indisputable right to the territories which Tippoo had invaded; that the war had originated in the restless ambition of the Mysorean sultan, his hostility to the British, and his long premeditated design of subduing Travancore, which would open

enable him to attack Madras, and all our possessions in that part of India; that, under the circumstances, with Tippoo occupying and ravaging the territories of our ally, a war on our part was unavoidable, unless we wished to sacrifice all respect among the native powers of India."

The application which Tippoo had made to Louis XVI., through MM. Leger and de Molleville, could not then have been known to Parliament; but his past actions had proved him a barbarous and faithless monster in human form, whose mere name excited our troops to fury; so the great majority of the House of Commons had ample faith in the justice and moderation of Earl Cornwallis. Thus Philip Francis was compelled to abandon alike "his envenomed paradoxes," and let his thirteen resolutions drop without a division. A few days after this, Henry Dundas, doubtless with Pitt's approbation, moved three counterresolutions. These were :

"1. That it appeared to this House that the attacks made by Tippoo Sultan upon the Lines of Travancore, were unwarranted and unprovoked infractions of the Treaty of Mangalore, concluded with the British in 1784.

"2. That the conduct of the Governor-General, in determining to prosecute with vigour the war against Tippoo, in consequence of his attacks on the territories of the Rajah of Travancore, was highly meritorious.

"3. That the treaties entered into with the Nizam, and with the Mahrattas, were wisely calculated to add vigour to the operations of war, and to promote the future tranquillity of India; and that the faith of the British nation was pledged for the due performance of the engagements contained in the said treaties."

After some debate, but without a division, Dundas's three important resolutions were adopted by the House.

WHILE the three allied armies lay at Savandroog, a fourth was preparing to join them under General Abercromby, whose duties, as Governor of Bombay, requiring his presence there, had returned to TelliSchomberg, "Nav. Chron."

cherry early in November, and, having mustered his forces, amounting to 8,400 men, at the town of Cannanore, on the coast of Malabar, marched five miles northward to Iliacore.

The river on which this town is situated having

been flooded, he crossed it by boats, and marched for twenty-five miles through a wild district, to the western end of the Pass of Pudicherrim, on the borders of Coorg, on the friendly aid of whose rajah full dependence was placed. The Rajahs of Coorg were independent princes during the sixteenth century, and the present family had reigned since 1632. They were of the Nair caste of Hindoos, and retained their independence, till domestic dissension gave Hyder an opportunity of subduing them, and the rajah died, a captive in the castle of Cudoor. His eldest son, the then rajah, having been forcibly circumcised, was burning for freedom and revenge; and having made his escape from his prison at Periapatam, succeeded in driving the troops of Tippoo out of his dominions, till Merkara was the only place then possessed by the sultan. When our war with Tippoo commenced, the value of having so gallant and resolute an ally, whose frontier lay within forty miles of Seringapatam, became at once apparent; and the Bombay Government gladly made a treaty with him for the mutual invasion of Mysore. He nobly performed all his engagements, though in one instance he certainly excited suspicion in the mind of General Abercromby.

When the latter entered Coorg, on his route to Periapatam, the rajah was blockading the fortified town of Merkara, some sixty miles distant from Seringapatam. The garrison was starving, and an early surrender expected. It was known that Tippoo had sent a great convoy for its relief, but the troops escorting the train had been surrounded, and could not escape; thus, great was the surprise of Abercromby, when the rajah rode to his camp in person, with tidings that he had permitted the convoy to enter Merkara, and its escort to get off free.

His somewhat singular explanation was, that Kadir Khan, commanding the escort, had in former times laid him under such obligations, that he had not the heart to treat him as an enemy. It would seem that when the rajah had been a captive in Periapatam, two of his sisters had been forcibly placed in Tippoo's harem, but Kadir had saved the honour of a third, the youngest, by enabling her to escape unharmed.

It was in return for this service that the rajah, after the convoy and its escort had been entirely surrounded by his troops, caused information to be given to Kadir Khan, that he wished to spare him disgrace or death. A conference between them actually took place, and with singular gratitude, the rajah, in the face of his whole army, allowed Merkara to be revictualled, and the convoy to return unmolested. By this, however, the rajah lost nothing, for the food was soon consumed, and

the garrison capitulated, after which Abercromby pushed on to Periapatam.

In one of Lord Teignmouth's letters, dated Bath, 31st December, 1791, we find the view taken at home of our Eastern affairs at this time.

"Hope and fear are now standing on the tip-toe of expectation for intelligence from India. Before the arrival of the late news, with an account of Lord Cornwallis's return to Bangalore, a general opinion prevailed that we should hear of the capture of Seringapatam. The unexpected success of his lordship's first operations against Tippoo excited hopes that were rather unreasonable; but the despondence of his return is still more so. In England, everything is a party concern, rather than a national one; and I firmly believe there are many public men who would hear that Lord Cornwallis had been compelled to return to the Carnatic, with more satisfaction than that he was in possession of Seringapatam, and master of Tippoo's fate. In the public papers, which are all under party influence, you will trace the sentiments of the parties they serve; and, if I am not mistaken, you will perceive an exultation at Lord Cornwallis's return which will disgust you. He has, and ever will have, my respect, esteem, and regard, to which I can only add my most sanguine wishes that his success may be speedy and decisive, and proportioned to his zeal and virtue. He appears already in caricature, 'upon an elephant, taking a peep at Seringapatam, with a dreadful monsoon blowing in his teeth.'"*

On the 31st of January, 1792, the whole army got under arms, to be finally reviewed by Cornwallis, General Medows, the Nizam, the Mahratta chiefs, and the princes and sirdars of our allies-all the latter of whom were received with due honours, on the right of the line. Many of these dignitaries were on magnificently-accoutred elephants, and were preceded by chobdars, calling their titles aloud. "They had passed the sepoys at rather a quick pace," wrote an officer who was present, “but went very slow opposite to the European corps. The troops were all in new clothing, their arms and accoutrements bright and glittering in the sun, and themselves as well dressed as they could have been for a review in time of peace: all order and silence, nothing heard or seen but the uniform sound and motion in presenting their arms, accompanied by the drums and music of the corps, chequered and separated by the parties of artillery extended at the drag-ropes of their guns. The sight was beautiful, even to those accustomed to military parade; while the contrast was no less * Teignmouth's Memoirs, vol. i.