hood of Madras in the end of De- 5000 stand of arms, fell into the cember. While these events passed on the east side of the peninsula, the British army was by no means inactive on the west. Early in the season General Abercrombie detached a considerable force under Colonel Hartley, to the assistance of the Rajah of Travancore. By their united exertions the Mysoreans were soon completely expelled from the country, and the Rajah re-established in his kingdom. Colonel Hartley having performed this important service, marched across to Coimbatore; saved it, as we have seen, by introducing timely supplies, and then joined the grand army at Velladi. On the retreat of Colonel Floyd from Sattimungulum, and the events which followed it, it was thought that much good might be done by a diversion upon the Malabar coast. General Abercrombie therefore embarked at Bombay with all the forces he could collect, and arrived at Tellicherry on the 5th of December. His first enterprize was the siege of Cananore. Being joined by several neighbouring Rajahs with about 2000 Circars, who immediately on his appearance threw off the yoke of Tippoo, the line marched on the 14th to the attack of Cananore. The enemy were strongly posted on the heights in the neighbourhood of the town; but after an obstinate engagement were obliged to fall back, and shut themselves up in it. The fort itself was next morning vigorously assailed, the defences were taken, and the following day it surrendered at discretion. Balliapatam and Nurcarrow followed the example of Cananore, and 34 stand of colours, 68 pieces of cannon, and hands of the victors. When General Meadows followed Tippoo into the Carnatic, he left Colonel Hartley at Palicaudchery, with orders to keep open the communication between the eastern and western coasts. He at first found considerable difficulty in executing this commission, being opposed by an army of 10,000 men; yet he at last gained a signal victory over them, at the village of Terrannungary, and succeeded in completely routing and dispersing them. He then commenced offensive operations, and reduced successively the forts of Trincalore, Turuckabad, Barragurry and Cootaphore; so that in a few weeks the whole of the Malabar coast was cleared of the enemy, from the river Keway to Cape Comorin. Of the transactions of our allies during this season, we have little to relate. Always dilatory in their motions, and slow in fulfilling their engagements, they did not take the field till late in the year, and then performed nothing of consequence. The Mahratta army, assisted by a detachment of British troops from Bombay, invested Derwar, a strong fortification on the northern frontier of Mysore; which did not surrender till the following summer, after an obstinate siege of many months. The Nizam's troops took some inconsiderable forts on that part of Tippoo's dominions which is opposite to his own. These were the principal occur rences of the first campaign against Tippoo Sultan, which upon the whole was successful, though it did not answer the expectations of some sanguine politicians, who calculated on nothing less than a total annihilation of the power of Mysore. Mysore. Our troops had been successful in every engagement with the Sultan's, however inferior their numbers; and there was reason to hope that in another campaign all his cunning, finesse, and subtlety would not avail to save him from destruction. After the reverse of fortune which the British arms experienced, Lord Cornwallis determined, contrarily to his first intentions, to leave Calcutta, and to take the command of the army in person. Accordingly he embarked in the Vestal frigate, at Diamond-Harbour; and, after a prosperous voyage, reached Fort St. George on the 13th of December. His attention was for some time directed to the inspection of the army, the examination of the state of the magazines, and to acquiring information of the enemy's country. He then settled the plan of the ensuing campaign. He gave up all idea of penetrating into Mysore in a southern direction; but determined to make directly across from Madras, and to attempt some of the passes about the middle of the Carnatic. Having thus gained the heart of the enemy's country, he resolved to proceed at once to Bangalore, the second place of consequence in the empire; and, having taken it, to turn to the north, and lay siege to Seringapatam. He ordered General Abercrombie to conduct his army to Trincomalé, and there to form it into two divisions; to send one of them, as lightly equipped as possible, to his immediate assistance; to penetrate him-, self with the other into the Mysore, and to join him in the neighbourhood of the capital. No sooner was this plan formed than he began its execution. About the end of January, 1790, having completed his stores of provisions, ammunition, and battering-guns, he marched towards the Baramaul Valley, with a seeming intention of passing through it: but this proved ouly to be a feint; for, having reached Vellore, he turned suddenly to the right, and directed his march to the Mugglee Pass. This manœuvre proved successful: no enemy appeared to the English till they had made good their passage; but incredible were the obstacles opposed to them by nature. Mountain rose above mountain, steep and rugged; deep ravines and valleys were sunk between. Having halted a few days to refresh his army, he pushed on to Bangalore, distant about 110 miles, which he reached in five days, without having encountered in his march any opposition, save from flying squadrons of horse, who were employed in carrying off, or burning the forage, and laying waste the country before him. The forts of Molwagle, Colar, and Ouscottah, surrendered at his approach. The Sultan, alarmed at this daring invasion into the very heart of his country, and apprehensive for the fate of Bangalore, left his position on the frontier, hurried thither with all his forces, and arrived in the neighbourhood the very same day with Lord Cornwallis. The following morning witnessed an action of considerable importance between the two armies. The cavalry of the English army had been employed in reconnoitring the fort; they fell in with the rear of the enemy, considerably detached from the main body, attacked it, put it to flight, imprudently pursued it, were met by a far superior force, and put to flight in their turn. How However, they soon rallied, and, having received large reinforcements from the camp, they succeeded in finally repulsing the enemy, and gained the honour of the day. Preparatorily to an attack on the fort, Lord Cornwallis, on the 7th of February, assaulted and carried the pettah, or town, in which he found a very great quantity of forage and provisions: a most fortunate circumstance, as the desolated state of the surrounding country presented the alarming prospect of approaching famine. The rejoicing on this occasion was damped by the loss of Lieut. Col. Moorhouse, who fell in the assault: an officer of distinguished military talents, and universally beloved. From this important post Tippoo twice attempted to dislodge the English; and, though assisted by a sally from the fort, returned both times to his camp unsuccessful: the tide of fortune having now turned strongly against him. From a piece of barbarous policy which he is said about this time to have committed, it would appear that he himself had become extremely apprehensive of personal danger. Contrarily to the conditions of the peace of Mangalore, he had retained several prisoners in his possession since the last war. He had constantly denied the charge; and lest, being found, they should discover his perfidy, he now ordered them all to be put to death. After the taking of the pettah, the English were incessantly employed in erecting batteries against the fort, which, from the shelter they enjoyed, they were able to do with great safety and convenience. On the 14th the batteries opened and played incessantly till the 21st, when a practicable breach was effected. Lord Cornwallis resolved to storm the place that very night; but, to prevent all possibility of Tippoo learning his intentions, he did not communicate the plan to the troops till the very moment when he ordered its execution. The assault began about eleven at night, and was crowned with most ample success. In two hours the British standard floated from the ramparts. The troops entered the breech in three divisions, each of which took a different direction; and, having carried every thing before them, met at the opposite gate, where they commenced a dreadful (we hope an unavoidable) carnage upon the panick-struck, unresisting, flying garrison. The passage was choaked by their numbers and impetuosity; and they fell by hundreds under the bayonets of the British. Had they not been thus disposed of, perhaps they might have rallied and retaken the fort. The loss on our part was fifty killed and wounded: above 1000 Mysoreans were killed. Among the latter was the brave killidar, or governor. Lord Cornwallis made an offer of his body to the Sultan. His answer was magnanimous : "I consider," said he, "the spot of ground which a soldier covers when he falls in the execution of his duty, as the most honourable that can be chosen for his grave." There were found in Bangalore immense quantities of provisions, 124 pieces of ordnance, and more gunpowder than could be used during the war. Lord Cornwallis, having left the 74th regiment and three battalions of sepoys under the command of Colonel Duff, to garrison his new conquest, now marched north wards, wards, with the rest of his army, to join a large body of cavalry, which were now coming from the Nizam to his assistance, under the command of Raja Feijee Wunt. On the first day of his march he fell in with the rear of Tippoo's army, which he put to flight, and obliged the Sultan to abandon the plan which he had formed to prevent the intended junction. After a pleasant journey for several days, in which he was unmolested by the enemy, and superabundantly supplied with provisions by the friendly Polygars, his Lordship was at last joined by the Nizam's cavalry, to the number of 15,000, little distinguished however by order, discipline, or skill. A large force had been left to the southward when General Meadows left Trichinopoly. This had been ordered to proceed to Amboor, and to join the grand army without delay. Lord Cornwallis, becoming anxious for its fate, now hastened upon its route, and had the pleasure to find it in safety at the edge of the Ghauts. Having thus succeeded in every thing to his mind, he returned to Bangalore. And here prudence would have directed him to remain. The season was far advanced; the monsoon might be expected to set in before he could have any reasonable hopes of completing his plan; he had not made any proper arrangements for being regularly supplied with provisions; numberless strong forts remained untaken on his rear: however, anxious lest things should take an unfavourable turn; alarmed at the fluctuating state of politics in Europe; eager, on account of the Company's finances, to bring the war to a speedy termination; wishing to maintain the favourable impression which had been made upon the allies by the capture of Bangalore; expecting to be speedily joined by the Bombay and the Mahratta armies, and to be liberally supplied by them,-Lord Cornwallis set forward about the beginning of May for the enemy's capital. Unfortunately, at this period, there happened a very heavy fall of rain, a thing at this season extremely rare, which rendered the roads, rugged by nature, deep, heavy, and almost impassable. After a difficult, laborious, and fatiguing march of ten days, in which a great part of the bullocks died, and the ordnance and entrenchingtools were obliged to be drawn chiefly by the troops, the army arrived at Arakerry, a village about nine miles from Seringapatam. Tippoo, guessing the purpose of Lord Cornwallis, had returned to his capital four days before, and was now posted, with his army, betwixt him and the town, at the foot of the hills which rise on the north bank of the Cavery. The British General wished to attack him; but a track of swampy ground, intersected with deep ravines, extended between the two armies; and the command of this passage, naturally so difficult, Tippoo had secured by the erection of several strong batteries. Still he must be dislodged; and as the only means, Lord Cornwallis having left the baggage, artillery, &c. in the camp, with a corps de reserve, set out with the rest of the army himself, soon after dark, intending to make a circuit round the hills on the right, and to fall unexpectedly on the enemy's camp at day-break. It rained violently all night, and the cattle were exhausted with drawing the guns along along the front of our lines, so that when day broke, Lord Cornwallis had the mortification to find that his troops had made but small progress in their journey. However, he persevered in his intention to attack, although darkness no longer concealed his motions: and he had the good fortune to arrive within a small distance of the enemy before they had any notice of his approach. A hill, which was unoccupied, seemed to command Tippoo's left flank. The first brigade, which headed our column, pushed on to gain this important station; but upon descending a height, which had for some time concealed it from their view, they saw it taken possession of by a detachment which the Sultan had sent for that purpose, the moment he discovered the English army. Our troops were some time dreadfully annoyed by some guns which were opened upon them from the hill; and had it not been for the shelter afforded them by a ledge of rocks, they would have been completely enfiladed. The whole army having at last come up, and being properly arranged, Colonel Maxwell was dispatched with the 52d and 71st regiments, and Major Langley's brigade, to storm the height. The troops ascended with rapidity and steadiness, under a dreadful fire of cannon and musquetry. Not a Mysorean offered to turn his back till he was within a few yards of the British bayonets. The charge was made with such spirit, that they were, at length, all obliged to fly, and to abandon their guns. The whole army then advanced to the attack, and the battle became general. Greater bravery, or more steady discipline, could not have been displayed by the troops of any European potenVOL. XXXIV. were tate than by the Indians, under Tippoo, on the 15th of May. However, nothing could resist the efforts of British valour; they were obliged to yield on every side; they were driven from rock to rock, and from mountain to mountain: at each they made a fresh stand while their cannon drawing off, but were constantly beat back, and were at length obliged to seek shelter under the guns of the capital. Glorious was the view which the setting sun displayed to the victorious English; the proud capital of Mysore rising upon an island in all the grandeur of eastern magnificence, adorned with splendid buildings, defended by immense fortifications, and skirted with the most superb gardens;-the rapid Cavery winding round its walls, every where lined with forts, and filled with crowds of the flying enemy. The noble prize seemed now within their reach: but in the hour of victory they found it necessary to retreat, and a course of disasters which followed, threatened to snatch it from them for ever. Scarcity began to appear in the camp; and a covering army was necessary while carrying on the operations of the siege. Lord Cornwallis, when he set out on this expedition, had trusted to the co-operation of the Mahrattas. He had for some time daily expected their arrival, in vain, and now gave up all hopes of their assistance. One resource still remained. General Abercrombie, agreeably to his instructions, had proceeded early in the spring from the neighbourhood of Cananore ; had occupied a strong position at the entry of the Poodicheram pass by the 1st of March, after a diffi[P] cult |