# A History of the Military Transactions of the British Nation in Indostan/Volume 2/Book 10

BOOK X.
1758 September. THE French detachment, which marched under the command of Saubinet, against Trinomalee, were resisted with bravery by the kellidar appointed by Kistnarow of Thiagar, who stood three assaults, in the last of which the French stormed the pagoda, and with much fury put 500 men to the sword. This conquest was gained on the 10th of September, and on the 16th Mr. Soupire appeared with a large division of the army before Carangoly, which Mursafabeg not thinking tenable had left with a few troops to resist slight assaults, and returned with the rest to defend Trivatore. Carangoly submitted on the first summons, and at the same time another detachment under the command of the Chevalier de Crillon marched against Trivatore, where Mursafabeg, with 300 horse of his own, joined by as many belonging to the Nabob, from Arcot, and a body of Sepoys, met the enemy in the field, and were soon defeated and dispersed; in consequence of which Trivatore was re-taken without farther resistance. In the mean time Mr. Lally himself, with an escort of horse, visited Alamparva, Gingee, Carangoly, Chittapet, and several minor posts, and then came to Vandiwash, where all the detachments had assembled from their different expeditions. Here he was joined by Mr. Bussy, who, leaving the troops which he had brought from the northward to the conduct of Moracin at Nelore, had passed from hence with his private retinue, under the safeguard of a passport granted by the presidency of Madrass. From Vandiwash Mr. Lally detached the Count D'Estaign with a part of the army to reduce ​duce the fort, of Arcot, to whom Timery surrendered in the way without resistance; and before he arrived at Arcot, Rajahsaheb had succeeded in a negotiation with the Nabob's kellidar to deliver up the fort on an insignificant capitulation. Mr. Lally, thinking that the taking possession of the citadel of the capital would magnify his reputation in the province, resolved to receive the surrender in person, and made his entry into the fort on the 4th of October, under the discharge of all the cannon; and dispatched orders to Pondicherry and the other French garrisons to proclaim the acquisition with the same ostentation.
The Presidency of Madrass saw in these operations nothing but what they expected would have happened immediately after the fall of Fort St. David; and the preservation of Chinglapet, if in their power, gave them more solicitude, than the abandoning of all the other forts together, which the inferiority of their force had left them no means of preserving. At the request of the renter of Chinglapet, they had sent two companies of Sepoys to guard this fort, whilst his own men with arms were employed in protecting the harvests, and the same number of Sepoys were sent at the same time to garrison Conjeveram. Towards the end of August a lieutenant was appointed to command those in Chinglapet, and carried with him another company. On the 14th of September arrived the company's ship Pitt, of 50 guns: she sailed from England on the 6th of March together with six other, under the convoy of the Grafton of 70, and the Sunderland of 60 guns, coming to reinforce Mr. Pococke's squadron: on board of these ships were embarked 900 men of the king's troops, embodied in a regiment under the command of lieutenant colonel Draper, who with Major Brereton, and 100 of the regiment, arrived and landed from on board the Pitt, but 50 had died on the passage of a contagion, then called the Brest fever, which had passed during the war from the French marine into many English ships. The troops which came in the Pitt, and the expectation that the other ships with the rest would arrive before the change of the monsoon, encouraged the Presidency to send four companies more of Sepoys to Chinglapet: this reinforcement stopped the march of considerable detachment ​which had set out on the 10th from Carangoly to attack that place, where, immediately after, arrived the two companies of Sepoys from Conjeveram, retreating as soon as Trivatore was reduced. The garrison, now consisting of nine companies, was deemed almost sufficient to maintain the fort, until relieved from Madrass; and captain Richard Smith was appointed to take the command, and with him were sent two commissioned officers, a serjeant, a corporal, and 12 European gunners, and two field-pieces; so that the whole number of Europeans, including the Serjeants of the Sepoys, were thirty chosen men, and captain Smith was ordered to defend the fort at all events and extremities. On the 25th, the squadron commanded by Mr. Pococke anchored in the road, having executed a secret commission which had detained him nil this while to the southward, and had given rise to a variety of erroneous reports and conjectures. The Presidency on the 25th of August had finally resolved to recall Major Calliaud from Tritchinopoly, with all the European soldiers and Coffrees in the garrison, excepting such as were in the service of the artillery, or annexed to the Sepoys. Calliaud, just as he was ready to march, received intelligence on the 5th of September, that a very large fleet of English ships were arrived at Ajengo there; which, although doubtful, required him to suspend his departure until more certain advices, which he received on the 15th, and the next day began his march with 180 Europeans and 50 Coffrees, leaving, according to his instructions, the command of the garrison, in which were now included the 2000 Sepoys brought by Mahomed Issoof from Tinivelly, to captain Joseph Smith. The detachment marching through the Tanjore country met every kind of assistance in their way, and on the 23d embarked from Negapatam on board the squadron, which arrived two days after at Madrass. This reinforcement increased the means of protecting Chinglapet; and four more field-pieces, with a complement of Lascars to work them, were sent thither on the 2d of October.
Mr. Lally at length saw the importance of this place, which, 20 days before, he might have taken by escalade in open day, and resolved to march against it with his whole force as soon as he had settled some ​arrangements in the government of Arcot, and the adjacent countries. In the mean time his communication with Chinglapet was opened by the possession of Covrepauk and Conjeveram, which his detachments found evacuated. But his late acquisitions had not hitherto reimbursed the expences of the field, nor established his credit to borrow: so that his treasury could barely supply the pay of the soldiers, and could not provide the other means of putting the army in motion, and all that the government of Pondicherry could immediately furnish was 10,000 rupees: pretending therefore much indignation at this disappointment, he distributed the troops into various cantonments, and returned himself, accompanied by Mr. Bussy, to Pondicherry, where as usual he imputed the failure of his intentions against Chinglapet to the mismanagements of the Company's administration. Notwithstanding his deep animosity to Mr. Bussy, respect to the distinguished character of this officer confined Mr. Lally to the observances of public civility; which imposed on no one, as he had still more publickly expressed his real opinions. The rank which Mr. Bussy held at this time was only that of lieutenant colonel; and besides Mr. Soupire, who was a major general, six of the officers arrived from France were colonels, who of course must command him on all services when acting together. The colonels, sensible of the advantages which might be derived from his abilities, and his experience and reputation in the country, and how much the opportunities would be precluded by the present inferiority of his rank, signed a declaration, requesting, on these considerations, that he might be appointed a Brigadier General, in supersession to themselves, which would place him next in command to Mr. Soupire. The public zeal which dictated this request, conferred as much honour on those who made it, as their testimony on Mr. Bussy. Their names, highly worthy of record on this occasion, were mostly of ancient and noble descent; D'Estaign, de Landivisiau, de la Faire, Bretueil, Verdiere, and Crillon. Mr. Lally could make no objection, but with his usual asperity imputed the compliment to the influence of Mr. Bussy's money, instead of his reputation. ​The approach of the stormy monsoon warned the English squadron to quit the coast; and Mr. Pococke, as on all other occasions of consequence, consulted the Presidency on the security of Madrass during his absence. They were of opinion that the enemy, if at all, would not attack the town before the rains had ceased, which generally happens about the end of November, and had no doubt of defending it until reinforcements should arrive, or the squadron return. But as the lateness of the season might deter the ships expected from England from venturing on the coast until the month of January, they requested Mr. Pococke to lend the marines of the squadron; with which he complied without hesitation. One hundred men were landed, and on the 11th the squadron weighed anchor and sailed for Bombay.
Mr. Moracin, having purposely waited at Nelore until the end of September, then began his march with the detachment left to his care by Mr. Bussy, and was accompanied by Nazeabulla with the troops of his government: proceeding through the woods and mountains of Bangar Yatcham Naigue, they arrived at the Pagoda of Tripetty on the 5th of October, the day on which the great annual feast began; which lasts 25 days. They were here joined by Abdulwahab Cawn, with his troops from Chandergherry: they gave no disturbance to the pilgrims, but summoned the renter to dismiss his guards and deliver up the avenues, who, not having a force sufficient to make any effectual opposition, made proposals to rent the revenue of this, and the ensuing feasts, from the French, on the same terms as he had hitherto held them from the English government, and tendered a sum in hand, which Moracin accepted, and confirmed him in the employment. Then leaving a part of his detachment to guard this valuable acquisition, he proceeded on the 16th with the rest and the troops of Nazeabulla, to Arcot, through the country of Bomrauze, who, instead of opposing their passage, paid them a visit. But Abdulwahab, much offended that the management of the pagoda, which had so long been the object of his wishes, was not granted to himself, retired with his troops to Chandergherry. Nazeabulla ​and Moracin arrived at Arcot on the 12th, and leaving their troops there went on to attend Mr. Lally at Pondicherry.
The desistance of Mr. Lally from marching against Chinglapet after the reduction of Arcot, gave the Presidency of Madrass encouragement and opportunity to strengthen that place more effectually. The partizan Murzafabeg, having, since the French successes, no employment for the troops he had levied, had brought the best of them, 70 horse and 200 Sepoys, to Chinglapet, where they were taken into the company's pay; and on the 30th of October it was determined to increase the garrison to 100 Europeans, and 1200 Sepoys, to send several pieces of battering cannon, to lay-in three months provisions, and to repair the works. At the same time Captain Smith was recalled to Madrass, to serve in his former employment of aid-de-camp to Colonel Lawrence, and Captain Preston was sent to take the command of Chinglapet, which illness had obliged him to quit. Before his arrival Captain R. Smith had detached Mursafabeg on the 29th, with four companies of Sepoys, and some of the horse, to dislodge a party of the enemy's Sepoys, who had taken post in the village of Polipore, situated about two miles from the other side of the Paliar; Mursafabeg attacked them at day-break, killed and wounded 20, dispersed the rest, and gathered 60 of their muskets, which they had thrown down in their fight.
The arrival of a vessel at Pondicherry on the 18th, from Mauritius, which brought treasure, together with 100,000 rupees, brought by Mr. Moracin from Tripetti, enabled Mr. Lally to put the French troops into motion again: and, as the symptoms of the rainy season hung back even at the end of the month, parties began to assemble at Carangoly, Salawauk, and Conjeveram, and Mr. Lally himself came from Pondicherry to Vandiwash. On the 2d of November 250 Europeans, 100 troopers, with some black horse and Sepoys, marched from Salawauk, and took post again at Polipore, where they were joined on the 5th by 400 more Europeans, with several pieces of battering cannon, and a mortar: intelligence of which came to Madrass the next day, a few hours after the last convoy of supplies had set out for Chinglapet; and as the ​maintenance of this place depended on the arrival of these supplies, it was resolved that 1200 Europeans and 1800 Sepoys, by far the greatest part of the garrison of Madrass, should immediately take, the field to cover them; of which one half, under the command of Lieutenant-colonel Draper, were to advance as far as Vendalore, within 10 miles of Chinglapet; whilst the other, with Colonel Lawrence, were to halt at St. Thomas's mount, ready to support Draper's division: they marched on the 7th in the morning; and the news stopped the French troops at Polipore from crossing the river, and the march of a detachment advancing from Conjeveram under the command of Saubinet, both intending to intercept the convoy; which got safe into Chinglapet on the evening of the ninth. Colonel Draper continued at Vendalore until the 11th, when he received some intelligence of the approach of the whole of the enemy's army, on which he marched back with his division, and joined that with Colonel Lawrence at the mount.
Every day had proved the good effects of re-establishing the possession of Chinglapet: for, under the protection of this barrier, the country behind, which is more extensive than the districts protected by Pondomalee and Tripassour, continued to furnish Madrass with daily supplies of all kinds of provisions and necessaries, by which the stock laid up in store to sustain the impending siege was saved; and to preserve this benefit as long as possible, the troops which had been sent abroad with Draper and Lawrence were ordered to remain encamped at the Mount until the last hour which might endanger the safety of their retreat to the town; after which, as the best of external means to protract the siege when commenced, it was determined to have a body of troops in the field distinct from those already belonging to the garrison, which, if nothing more, were to be continually employed in harassing the enemy's convoys of stores and provisions. Accordingly a contract, which had for some months been under discussion, was concluded with the agent of Morarirow for the service of 2000 Morratoe horse, of which 500 were to arrive in 25 days, and the rest in 45; but as no sureties were received, the punctuality of this assistance could not be relied on. The presidency, therefore, as a surer resource, ordered the commandant Mahomed ​homed Issoof to take the field with 2000 of their own Sepoys from the garrison of Tritchinopoly; and requested the king of Tanjore to join this body with 1000 of his horse, and the Polygar Tondiman, and even the distant Moravars, with the best of their troops; for whom, however, Mahomed Issoof was not to wait; and, in case none of these allies arrived in time, he was empowered to enlist 500 good horse if to be found in his march. The Nabob still maintained 300 horse, part of whom attended his person at St. Thomé, and the rest were dispersed in the adjacent districts, who on the receipt of some money joined the army at the Mount; to which all the Polygars to the northward of Madrass were likewise commanded to send their troops; but none came: and the Partizan Murzafabeg, having been refused an increase of pay which ho demanded in this hour of necessity, went off in the night with his 70 horse and some of his Sepoys, and took service with the French army at Conjeveram.
The troops, of whose approach L.-Colonel Draper had received intelligence, were 500 irregular Sepoys, under the command of an active adventurer named Lambert, with part of the horse levied by Rajahsaheb, who had been sent forward to plunder and terrify the country. They crossed the Paliar, and on the 15th, appeared before Tripassour, and attacked the pettah, but were repulsed at the hedge which surrounds it, with the loss of 20 men, by the Peons of the renter, and the two companies of Sepoys stationed in the fort.
But the French army were not in such readiness as the English imagined to commence the siege of Madrass. All the draught bullocks which Pondicherry had been able to collect were not sufficient to transport one half of the heavy artillery necessary for the attack; and the greatest part of the train, with many other stores, had been laden a month before on the Harlem taken from the Dutch, which ship sailed across the bay, in order to work to the northward on the other side, when she was to stretch across again and fall in with Masulipatam, where she was to receive more cannon and stores, and then come down the coast to Madrass. The time was elapsed in which a well-sailing vessel might have made this passage, and without news of the Harlem; and on this disappointment ​Mr. Lally ordered another store of artillery, which had been deposited at Alamparva, to be shipped on two frigates, the Diligence and the Expedition, which were in the road of Pondicherry, but laden for other voyages; so that it would require a month before they could get this artillery on board, and work up against the wind and current to Madrass. However, the French army might have advanced many days before, if they had not been in want of many other articles, which, although of much more minute detail, were equally of absolute necessity. As soon as these were supplied, the first division moved from Conjeveram on the 19th; but Mr. Lally being very ill, had detained the reserve until the 22d, when the great body of the monsoon rain fell with the utmost violence, and lasted without intermission for three days: the troops abroad, warned by the sky, were on their march back to Conjeveram when the rain began, but nevertheless gained their way with much difficulty and distress, and after it had ceased, the surface of the country continued impassable for several days.
Whilst the collected force of both nations in the Carnatic were thus waiting the impending conflict, each were equally solicitous concerning the success of the armament sent from Bengal into the northern provinces. Mr. Johnstone, who had been sent from Calcutta to concert preparations with the Rajah Anunderauze, arrived on the 12th of September at Vizagapatam, of which the Rajah's officers there immediately put him in possession, as the Company's representative. The Rajah himself was encamped with his forces at Cossimcotah, a fort 20 miles to the west of Vizagapatam, and 15 inland from the sea. His letter to Mr. Johnstone expressed much satisfaction that the English troops were coming, but signified his intention not to furnish any money towards their expences. Tempestuous weather from the south delayed the arrival of the ships and vessels with Colonel Forde until the 20th of October. As soon as the disembarkation was made, two of the Company's ships were sent back to Bengal; but the other, the Hardwicke, and the two sloops, remained to attend the progress of the expedition. The troops moved from Vizagapatam on the 1st of November, and on the third joined ​the Rajah and his army at Cossimcotah, from whence it was determined to march against Rajahmundrum, where Mr. Conflans had collected the French troops from all parts, and they were already advancing to attack the Rajah; but, on hearing that the English troops were in motion to join him, they halted and encamped.
Mr. Johnstone had dispatched the sloop in which he came, with advices to Madrass of his reception at Vizagapatam; on which they immediately sent away Mr. Andrews, with several assistants, to reestablish the factory under their own authority, on which the settlement had always been dependent: They likewise sent Captain Callendar, an officer on the Madrass establishment, to act as second under Colonel Forde. The vessel which brought them arrived at Vizagapatam on the 21st of November; and Andrews with Callendar immediately went to the camp, which, by long halts and short marches, had not yet advanced 30 miles beyond Cossimcotah. Various excuses were employed by the Rajah to extenuate this delay; but the real cause Was his repugnance to furnish the money which Colonel Forde demanded, who was not a little offended at his evasions. Mr. Andrews, who, having been chief of Madapollam, had long been personally known to the Rajah, adjusted their differences by a treaty, which stipulated, "that all plunder should be equally divided; that all the countries which might be conquered should be delivered to the Rajah, who was to collect the revenues; but that the seaports and towns at the mouths of the rivers should belong to the company, with the revenues of the districts annexed to them; that no treaty for the disposal or restitution, whether of the Rajah's or the English possessions, should be made without the consent of both parties; that the Rajah should supply 50,000 rupees a month for the expences of the army, and 6000, to commence from their arrival at Vizagapatam, for the particular expences of the officers." He held out likewise other proposals of future alliance, which he had not yet authority to ratify.
The united forces now moved in earnest, and on the 3d of December came in sight of the enemy, who were encamped 40 miles on this side of Rajahmundrum, in a strong situation which commanded ​the high road, near a village called Gallapool, and in sight of a fort called Peddipore. They had 500 Europeans, many more pieces of cannon than they could use at once, a great number of the troops of the country, of which 500 were horse, and 6000 Sepoys. Of the English force embarked from Bengal, only 30 Europeans and a few Sepoys were wanting, who had been left sick at Vizagapatam; so that there were in the field 470 Europeans, and 1900 Sepoys. The Rajah had 500 paltry horse, and 5000 foot, some with aukward firearms, the rest with pikes and bows: but he had collected 40 Europeans, who managed four field-pieces under the command of Mr. Bristol; besides which his own troops had some useless cannon. On the 6th, the English and the Rajah's army advanced and took possession of a village called Chambole, on the high road likewise, within four miles of the enemy, when each deemed the situation of the other too strong to be attacked: on which Colonel Forde, as the only means to draw the enemy from theirs to a general action, resolved to march round and regain the road to Rajahmundrum in their rear, by passing under the hills to their left, where the enemy could not derive much advantage from their horse. The Rajah approved; and on the 9th, at four in the morning, the English troops were in motion; but the Rajah's with their usual indolence not prepared to march. Near the foot of the hills, about three miles to the right of the village of Chambole, was another called Condore, to gain which, the English troops having filed from the right, were in march, when, at day-break, they heard a strong cannonade towards the Rajah's camp. It was from 6 guns, which Mr. Conflans, ignorant, of Colonel Forde's march, had sent on in the night, under the guidance of an intelligent deserter, who had noticed a spot that bore upon the camp; and Mr. Conflans was following to support them with his whole army and the rest of his field-artillery. The Rajah sent messages after messages, which met the English troops returning to his relief; and his own, quickened by the danger, were removing as fast as they could out of the reach of it; and having, in much confusion, joined the English, continued marching on with them to the village of Condore, where all arrived at eight o'clock. The enemy, although ​from long distances, continued to cannonade whilst any of the English or the Rajah's troops remained within probable reach.
When arrived at the village of Condore, the army was just as far as before from the French encampment at Gallapole, but with better ground between, and village midway, which would afford a strong advanced post. Mr. Conflans imagined that the English troops had marched from their encampment to Condore, in order from hence to take possession of this village, and in this persuasion crossed the plain to prevent them, with his whole army, and succeeded in his wish without interruption; for Colonel Forde remained halting at Condore, to regulate his future motions by the enemy's. Mr. Conflans imputed this inaction to a consciousness of inferiority, and now imagined that the English intended to march back to their encampment at Chambole, to prevent which, he formed his line, and advanced in much haste, and litte order.
The French battalion of Europeans was in the centre of the line, with 13 field-pieces, divided on their flanks, the horse, 500, were on the left of the battalion; 3000 Sepoys formed the right wing, and the same number the left, and with each wing were five or six pieces of cumbrous cannon. The English army drew up with their Europeans in the centre, the six field-pieces divided on their flanks; the 1800 Sepoys were likewise equally divided on the wings. Colonel Forde placed no reliance on the Rajah's infantry or horse, and ordered them to form aloof, and extend on each flank of the Sepoys: all this rabble kept behind, but the renegade Europeans under Bristol, who managed the four field-pieces belonging to the Rajah, advanced, and formed with the division of artillery on the left of the English battalion. The line having had time, were in exact order, and had advanced a mile in front of the village of Condore, during which, the enemy cannonaded hotly from all their guns. At length the impetuosity of the enemy's approach, who came on, out-marching their cannon, obliged the English line to halt for action; and it chanced that the whole of their battalion stopped near and opposite to a field of Indian corn, which was grown so tall that it entirely intercepted them from the enemy; ​but the Sepoys on the wings were free in the plain on each hand. For what reason is not known, Colonel Forde had ordered his Sepoys to furl their colours, which, besides the principal flag, are several small banners to a company, and to let them lay on the ground during the action.
The Sepoys and horse of the enemy's wings greatly outstretched the wings of the English line, and came on each in a curve to gain their flanks; the French battalion in the centre, instead of advancing parallel to where by the wings they might judge the centre of the English line would be, inclined obliquely to the right, which brought them beyond the field of Indian corn, opposite to the English Sepoys on the left wing; whom from their red jackets, and the want of their usual banners, they from the first approach mistook for the English battalion; respecting them as such, they halted to dress their ranks before they engaged, and then began to fire in platoons advancing, but at the distance of 200 yards. Nevertheless, this was sufficient; for the Sepoys, seeing themselves attacked without cover by Europeans in front, and the horse and multitude of the enemy's Sepoys, gaining their rear, or coming down on their flank, scarcely preserved courage to give their fire, hurried, scattered, and without command; and then immediately broke, and ran away to shelter themselves in the village of Chambole, and were followed by the nearest of the enemy's horse. This success was greater than even the confidence of the enemy expected; and several platoons of the French battalion were setting off to pursue them likewise, when they saw a line of men with shouldered arms marching fast and firm from behind the field of Indian corn across their way, to occupy the ground which the Sepoys had abandoned.
Colonel Forde had been with the Sepoys before their flight, encouraging them to resolution; but saw, by the usual symptoms of trepidation, that they would not stand the shock, which prepared him to order the judicious movement, which the officers were now performing with so much steadiness and spirit. Captain Adnet commanding on the left, led the line, and as soon as the last files were got clear of the corn, the word was given, when the whole ​halted, and faced at once, in full front of the enemy. This motion was quickly executed; for the foremost man had not more than 300 yards to march, and the field-pieces were left behind. During this short interval, the French battalion were endeavouring with much bustle to get into order again; for some of their platoons had advanced a considerable distance before others; and thus the fire of the English line commenced before the enemy's was ready; it was given in divisions, that is, the whole battalion divided into five, and began from Captain Adnet's on the left, which was within pistol shot, and brought down half the enemy's grenadiers; the fire ran on, and before the time came for Adnet's division to repeat theirs, the whole of the enemy's line were in confusion, and went about running fast to regain their guns, which they had left half a mile behind them on the plain.
The ardour of the English battalion to pursue was so great, that Colonel Forde judged it best to indulge it in the instant, although not certain of the success of the Sepoys on the right, but concluding that the enemy's Sepoys who were to attack them, would not continue long, if they saw their Europeans completely routed. The order was given for the battalion to march on in following divisions, the left leading. Nothing could repress their eagerness. All marched too fast to keep their rank, excepting the fourth division commanded by Captain Yorke, who to have a reserve for the whole battalion, if broken, as the enemy had been, by their own impetuosity, obliged his men to advance in strict order. The French battalion rallied at their guns which were 13 in number, spread in different brigades, or sets as they chanced to stand when left by the troops advancing to the action. This artillery began to fire as soon as the ground was clear of their own troops, and killed some men, which only quickened the approach of the divisions to close in with the guns, of which several fired when the first division was within pistol shot, and Adnet fell mortally wounded; but his men rushing on drove the enemy from the guns they attacked, and the other divisions following with the same spirit, obliged them to abandon all the others.
The day, if not completely victorious, was at, least secured from reverse by the possession of all the enemy's field artillery fit ​for quick firing; but their camp, to which they were retiring, still remained to be attacked; and Colonel Forde halted until joined by his Sepoys, and, if they would come, by the Rajah's troops.
The Sepoys and horse of the enemy's right wing were in their turn panick-struck by the fire of the English battalion routing their own, and all turned to gain the rear of the guns, keeping aloof to the left of the English divisions; and then went off again with the French battalion to the camp. Their left-wing of Sepoys behaved better, advancing to the use of musketry against the English Sepoys of the left, with whom the battalion, when filing off to oppose the French, left the three field-pieces of their right; and the Sepoys, encouraged by this assistance, the ardour of the Europeans marching off, and the spirit of their own commander Captain Knox, maintained their ground, facing and firing in various directions behind the banks of the rice fields, in which they had drawn up. The enemy's wing nevertheless continued the distant fire, until they saw their battalion of Europeans quitting their guns, and the Sepoys and horse of the right retreating with them to the camp; when they went off likewise; stretching round to the left of the English battalion halting at the guns, and keeping out of their reach. Captain Knox then advanced to join the battalion with his own Sepoys, and the six field-pieces, and had collected most of the fugitives of the other wing. Messages had been continually sent to the Rajah's horse to advance, but they could not be prevailed upon to quit the shelter of a large tank, at this time dry, in which they, his foot, and himself in the midst of them, had remained cowering from the beginning of the action.
As soon as the Sepoys joined, and all the necessary dispositions were made, which took an hour, Colonel Forde advanced to attack the enemy's camp; but, not to retard the march, left the field-pieces to follow. A deep hollow way passed along the skirt of the camp, behind which appeared a considerable number of Europeans regularly drawn up, as if to defend the passage of the hollow way, and several shot were fired from heavy cannon planted to defend the approach. Just as the English troops came near, and the first division of the Europeans stept out to give their fire, the ​field-pieces were arrived within shot; on which all the enemy went to the right-about, abandoned their camp, and retreated, seemingly every man as he listed, in the utmost confusion; but the English battalion crossing after them, many threw down their arms, and surrendered themselves prisoners. Mr. Conflans had previously sent away four of the smallest field-pieces; and the money of the military chest, laden for expedition on two camels. The spoil of the field and camp was 30 pieces of cannon, most of which were brass; 50 tumbrels, and other carriages laden with ammunition; seven mortars from thirteen to eight inches, with a large provision of shells; 1000 draught bullocks, and all the tents of the French battalion. Three of their officers were killed in the field, and three died of their wounds the same evening; 70 of their rank and file were likewise killed, or mortally wounded: six officers and 50 rank and file were taken prisoners, and the same number of wounded were supposed to have escaped. Of the English battalion, Captain Adnet and 15 rank and file, were killed; Mr. Macguire, the pay-master, and Mr. Johnstone, the commissary, who joined the grenadiers, two officers, and 20 of the rank and file, were wounded; the Sepoys had 100 killed and more wounded. No victory could be more complete. Mr. Conflans, the commander of the French army, changing horses, arrived on the full gallop at Rajahmundrum before midnight, although the distance is 40 miles from the field on which the battle was lost; the troops took various routs, but most of them towards Rajahmundrum.
The cavalry of Anunderauze, although incapable of fighting, were very active as scouts to observe the flying enemy, and the concurrence of their reports determined Colonel Forde to send forward 500 Sepoys, which in the army were ranked the first battalion of these troops, under the command of Captain Knox. They were in march at five in the afternoon. The next day intelligence was received that many of the enemy's Europeans, and some of their black fugitives, had stopped at Rajahmundrum; on which 1000 more Sepoys were sent to join those with Captain Knox; and the whole, now 1500, arrived there at break of day on the 10th.
​This city, the capital of the province, is situated on the eastern bank of the Godaveri, 40 miles from the sea. In the middle of the town, and near the river, stands a large fort, with mud walls of little defence. The French troops, having lost all their best cannon, would not trust to those in the fort, and report had represented the English Sepoys as the whole army, the Rajah's and all, in full pursuit; and in this persuasion they had begun to cross the river at midnight. Fifteen Europeans, with all the stores, baggage, and bullocks, which had escaped from the battle, had not yet embarked, and were immediately seized; a boat loaded with many more Europeans was in the stream; and four small field-pieces, with a thirteen-inch mortar of brass taken out of the fort, had just reached the other shore when the English Sepoys arrived, who fired for half an hour, as well with their muskets as from the cannon of the fort, upon the boat and the opposite shore, which deterred the enemy from carrying off the fieldpieces and mortar, or from remaining near them; and a party of Sepoys crossing the river in boats, brought them back the same day without molestation: a large quantity of ammunition and military stores, laid up for the French army, was taken in the fort.
Colonel Forde, with the rest of the English forces, arrived at Rajahmundrum the next day; but the Rajah, with his, remained at Peddipoor, performing the ceremony of burying the few of his people which had chanced to be killed by the straggling shot of the fight. The Hardwicke, and the two sloops, were at anchor on the coast some leagues above the field of battle, which is about 10 miles from the sea; and the day after the victory they sailed to cruize on the enemy's vessels between Masulipatam and their factories on the Godaveri: and a few days after the ship Thames was dispatched from Vizagapatam, fully laden with provisions, to Madrass.
The delay of every day which had retarded Mr. Lally from advancing against Madrass was an advantage gained; Captain Joseph Smith commanding in Tritchinopoly, as soon as he received the orders of the Presidency, equipped 2000 Sepoys from his garrison, and delivered them, with two small field-pieces, to the command of Mahomed Issoef, who crossed the Coleroon with this force on the ​21st of November, without waiting for the troops of the allies, whose assistance the Presidency had requested. The polygar Tondiman gave assurances, and was really collecting some, but the Moraver had returned no answer, and the king of Tanjore had expressed himself in such equivocal terms, that the Presidency resolved to send Major Calliaud, in whom the king had confidence, to convince him of the impolicy of his indifference accordingly this officer embarked on the 30th in a common massoolah, intending to land at Tranquebar.
The French army moved again from Conjeveram on the 29th of November, advancing on the high road towards Madrass: but a large detachment, under the command of Mr. Soupire, proceeded along the bank of the Paliar, with orders to halt between the river and Chinglapet. On the same day the partizan Lambert, with his troops and two small field-pieces, attacked the pettah of Pondomalee, which the Ensign, Crowley, attempted to defend, but was driven into the fort with the loss of 30 or 40 of his Sepoys killed and wounded, and two of their Serjeants, Europeans, were made prisoners. On the 4th of December, Mr. Lally reconnoitred the fort of Chinglapet in porson, within musket-shot; and, contrary to the sound rules of war, and perhaps his own conviction, determined to leave it in his rear. On the 7th, the whole army halted at Vendaloor, and Lambert's party appeared in sight of the Mount, where the English army had been reinforced with 400 more Europeans from the town, being all that remained, excepting the invalids and artillery: 300 had been posted, a mile and half in the rear of the main camp, at Sidapet or the little Mount, to guard the bridge and ford over the river of St. Thomé; but on the night after the appearance of Lambert's party, these troops were sent back to the town, and the same number were detached to supply their place from the camp; for Colonel Lawrence had no intention to risk a general action. In the afternoon of the 9th, a considerable body of the enemy appeared in sight of the Mount; but Mr. Lally had left his camp standing at Vendaloor, of which Colonel Lawrence received intelligence, and regarded this appearance of not moving far from it, as a feint to cover the intention of ​a forced march in the night, higher up, across the river of St. Thomé, which might bring the French army before morning between the English camp and Madrass, and cut off their retreat to the town: he therefore immediately struck his tents, and marched back with the whole army to the Choultry plain.
The ground so called commenceth about 2000 yards south-west of the white town of Madrass, or Fort St. George, from which it is separated by two rivers. The one called the river of Triplicane, winding from the west, gains the sea about a thousand yards to the south of the glacis. The other coming from the north-west, passeth near the western side of the black town, the extremity of which is high ground, which the river rounds, and continues to the east, until within 100 yards of the sea, where it washeth the foot of the glacis, and then turning to the south continueth parallel with the beach, until it joins the mouth and bar of the river of Triplicane. From the turning of the river at the high ground, a canal, striking to the south, communicates with the river of Triplicane. The low ground included by the channels of the two rivers and the canal, is called the island, which is about 3000 yards in circumference. 1200 yards from the strand of the sea is a long bridge leading from the island over the Triplicane river, to a road which continues south to the town of St. Thomé. Another bridge over the canal, leads to the west, and amongst others to a village called Egmore, from which this bridge takes its name. Coming from the south or west, these two bridges afford the only convenient access to the fort or white town, excepting another along the strand of the sea, when the bar of the Triplicane river is choked with sand. All the ground between the St. Thomé road and the sea is filled with villages and enclosures; and so is that on the left, for half a mile towards the Choultry plain, from which a road and several smaller passages lead through them to the St. Thomé Road.
It was neither the intention of the Presidency, nor of Colonel Lawrence himself, to risk the army on the Choultry plain, more than they had at the Mount; for a defeat in the field was the certain loss of Madrass, as the enemy in their superiority had 300 European ​horse, excellently mounted and disciplined; the greatest number which had hitherto appeared together in India. The intention was to gain time, for every day was precious; and not to dispirit the troops, who were to sustain the impending siege, and might have made sinister reflections if they had been hastily led back within the walls, before their own understandings were convinced of the necessity. The ground and the advantages which were taken of it by Colonel Lawrence, secured their retreat, when it should become necessary.
The Choultry plain extends two miles to the west of the enclosures which bound the St. Thomé road, and terminates on the other side at a large body of water called the Meliapore Tank, behind which runs with deep windings, the Triplicane river. The road from the Mount passes two miles and a half under the mound of the tank, and at its issue into the Choultry plain, was a kind of defile, formed by the mound on one hand, and buildings with thick enclosures on the other. Colonel Lawrence, retreating from the Mount, halted and remained during that and the next day, which was the 10th, opposite to this defile. On the 11th he cut through the mound of the tank, which swamped the whole length of the road, and then retreated to the other extremity of the plain, close to the enclosures nearest the Triplicane river. In this situation his field-pieces commanded the road leading across the plain to that part of the enclosures through which this road continues to that of St. Thomé, which from the junction continues straight to the bridge of Triplicane. Three companies of Sepoys were advanced in front on the left, to a choultry standing at the skirt of the plain, where the road enters the enclosures.
The French army remained at the Mount during the 11th, but marched before day-break on the 12th; and at sun-rise all their European cavalry, having taken a circuit to the south of the plain, appeared at the choultry so unexpectedly, that the Sepoys scarcely staid to give their first fire, and ran into the enclosures on their left, through which they gained the main body. The cavalry, thinking themselves secured by a small grove, which was in the rear of the ​choultry, drew up in the front of it, but were immediately annoyed by the advanced field-pieces; of which, several shot made way through the trees and killed three troopers; on which, all gallopped away to the St. Thomé road, intending, it should seem, to push to Triplicane-bridge, and then either continue on the island, or advance along the strand of the river in the rear of the English army; but opposite to the governor's garden, 500 yards from the bridge, they found the road stockaded across, as well as the lane on the left, along the garden-wall, by which they might likewise have come round; and in these two posts were three companies of Sepoys, with two guns; and the St. Thomé road, for a long way, had no other issue to the left. The first fire from the stockades drove the cavalry up the road until out of reach.
Mean while the main body of the French army appeared issuing from along the mound of the Meliapore tank, and advanced along the road, which was here between an avenue of trees, cannonading at intervals from some of their field -pieces: they were answered without intermission by six from the English line, until their van were half through the avenue, and within 1000 yards, when Colonel Lawrence ordered the retreat. The line marched off their ground by the right, and passing a village called Chindadrapettah, crossed the river of Triplicane, where it was fordable without difficulty; they then continued round two or three hamlets to the Egmore bridge, which leads over the canal into the Island. Here they halted some time to receive a guard of 30 Europeans posted in a redoubt at Egmore, in which was the powder-mill of the garrison. As soon as this party joined, the whole army crossed the bridge, and after some detachments of Europeans and Sepoys had been draughted and sent to defend the passes of the black town, the rest of the army marched into the fort. Mr. Lally gave no interruption to the retreat, probably because he suspected some stratagems. Three Europeans were killed in the cannonade, but the French lost 10, and as many wounded.
At the same time that the main body of the French army were advancing to the Choultry plain, their irregular Sepoys with Lambert ​had proceeded along the south side of the St. Thomé river, in order to attack a redoubt situated on the side of it near the sea. The guard was only one company of Sepoys, who, getting intelligence in time, retreated along the beach and arrived safe in the garrison.
As soon as Colonel Lawrence came into the fort, the council of the Presidency assembled, and by an unanimous vote committed the defence of the siege to the governor Mr. Pigot, recommending to him to consult Colonel Lawrence on all occasions, and on extraordinary emergencies to assemble a council of the superior officers of the garrison. The French army immediately encamped on the ground which the English had quitted, but sent a detachment across the Triplicane river, which took post in the redoubt at Egmore.
As the French army were advancing from the Mount, 300 Europeans, with two twelve-pounders, had been sent off under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Murphy, against Pondamallee. They arrived at noon, and Murphy summoned Ensign Crowley, with threats, as resisting in an untenable post, although the fort was of stone, and surrounded by a wet ditch. On Crowley's refusal, the twelve-pounders were employed until night, when 20 of the French detachment had been killed or wounded, and little damage had been done to the wall; but the Sepoys within, expecting neither succour nor quarter, began to waver; on which, Crowley marched with them out of the fort in deep silence at midnight, and passing where he was apprized the enemy kept slight watch, got out of reach before they were ready to pursue; and, knowing the country, came in the next morning by the north of the black town. The number was 500, in five companies, of which three were the garrison of Pondamalee, and two had retreated hither from the fort of Tripassore.
Their arrival brought in the last of the troops, stationed in distant out-posts, and completed the force with which Madrass was to sustain the siege. The roll of the European military, including the officers with 64 topasses, and 89 coffrees incorporated in the companies ​amounted to 1758 men. The Sepoys were 2220. Of the Europeans 24 were troopers mounted. The Nabob's horse were, 200; but, from experience, very little service was expected from them. The European inhabitants not military were 150 men, and they were appropriated without distinction to serve out stores and provisions to the garrison. The native boatmen, who alone can ply across the surf, had been retained by special encouragements, and their huts, with their massoolas or boats, extended under the wall next the sea, where it was supposed not a shot was likely to fall. The Nabob, with his family and attendants, had come into the fort on the day that the army retreated from the Mount; but although lodged in one of the best houses, were much straitened for want of the room and conveniences to which they had been accustomed.
The French army continued on the other side of the Triplicane river during the day they arrived from the Mount, and all the next; but at two in the morning of the 14th were in motion, and having passed the river where the English had crossed, proceeded at the back of Egmore to the village of Viparee, which is about a mile to the north-west of that post, and from whence a good road leads nearly west to the northern part of the black town. Parts of the ancient bound hedge, and the ruins of some guard-houses, still remained along the north and west sides of the black town; and, with the channel of the northern river, rendered the greatest part of the western side very defensible: but on the side facing the north, were many gaps, too open to be maintained. The army, having advanced to the ford across which the road from Viparee leads into the town fired their field-pieces before them, which the guards returned with their musketry, but the Sepoys only with one fire, and then ran away. The Europeans, nevertheless, defended the ford, and several other accesses on either hand, until they perceived that several parties of the enemy had entered on the north side; when all retreated as fast as they could to the fort, and none were Intercepted. In the skirmishes, three of them had been killed; but of the enemy, eleven Soon after, the whole of the French army appeared ​in the southern parts of the town, where the streets opened upon the esplanade of the fort. The regiment of Lally took up their quarters near the beach of the sea. Lorrain, with the battalion of India, on the rising ground to the west; but both behind buildings which screened them from the fire of the ramparts. A multitude of the natives, with the usual despondency of their character, had remained in their habitations until the last hour, and now came pouring upon the glacis, imploring admittance into the covered way, but were refused, and advised, to make their escape as well as they could in the night; several spies and two or three deserters came mingled amongst them, who reported that the French troops were all employed in ransacking the houses, and that they had discovered several warehouses filled with arrack, with which most of them had already got drunk; and such as were perceived from the town, appeared staggering under their loads and liquor; on which it was resolved to make a strong sally before they should have time to recover themselves.
Five hundred of the best men were draughted, and given to the command of Lieutenant-colonel Draper, who suggested the design; and 100 with Major Brereton were to follow a little while after, as a covering party. At eleven o'clock Draper's detachment marched out of the western ravelin; two companies of grenadiers led the line, but the two field-pieces were in the rear. Their way was first, 300 yards straight on to the west, where a bridge crosses a stagnated arm of the river that communicates with the western ditch of the fort. This bridge gives access to and from the black town by the ascent of the rising ground, and is laid pointing to the N. w. the ascent begins almost as soon as you have crossed the bridge, and the road to the top continues about 300 yards in that direction, when it turns into a long street of Indian houses, which runs nearly north and south, and is crossed by several others on either hand. Such was the negligence and security of the French army, that they did not perceive the approach of the detachment, until apprized by a mistake of the English drummers, most of whom being black boys, began to beat the grenadiers march as soon as they entered the street: ​on which the whole line from one end to the other set up their huzza; but even on this warning the enemy did not look out with sufficient attention to be certified in which street the detachment was advancing, but drew up at the head of another, which ran parallel to it, about 100 yards on the left; in which they advanced 2 or 3 platoons about 50 yards lower down, at the opening of a cross-street which gave a straight communication between the two: the English troops marching on did not receive a shot until they came opposite to this advanced guard, which then fired, and with execution, for the distance was point blank: the first of the line returned the fire, but being the company of grenadiers halted no longer than this operation, and then proceeded; for Draper, knowing how near, and where the enemy's main body were drawn up, would not stop the line, but stationed two platoons from the succeeding companies to continue the fire, and prevent the enemy from breaking through the street. He at the same time ordered the two field-pieces to advance from the rear to the front, and the troops marching in whole files opened to the right and left to let them pass; but before they were brought up, the grenadiers and some more had pushed on to the head of the long street, in which they were marching. This was terminated by another much broader that crossed it, coming on the right from the esplanade of the fort to the east, and continued 100 yards on the other hand to the west of the long street, where the cross-street turned to the north and then again to the west. In that part of the cross-street to the left appeared the regiment of Lorrain, with four field-pieces, drawn up facing the south, opposite to the street in which they had posted their advanced guard, and were expecting the English troops; to whom in this position they presented their flank quite naked. Beyond them, in the continuation of the street, after it has turned to the north, the battalion of India, which comprised the troops belonging to the French company, were assembling. Not a moment was lost in taking the advantage; the grenadiers, and as many more as the breadth of the street, which was here 50 yards, would admit, faced and fired; but had scarcely time to give a second, before the two field-pieces came up. In that part of the cross-street where the English troops had faced, and in ​front of their left, almost adjoining to the long street they had passed through, lay the ruins of a demolished house, which spread more than half-way over the cross-street, and although not high enough to prevent a single rank of musketry from firing over the rubbish, did not admit the field-pieces, which were therefore drawn up to the right of the rubbish, and the troops which had stood there made room for them, by crowding along the adjoining walls on that side of the cross-street. These alterations created some confusion; for they were made with much hurry from the ardour of setting the field-pieces to work; which did not disappoint the expectation, but firing with grape knocked down numbers. Lorrain scarcely stood a minute before all the men ran into the opposite houses; and all the officers could do was to turn the field-pieces, which the gunners likewise abandoned after the very first discharge. Draper immediately commanded his own firing to cease, and the grenadiers to follow him to the enemy's guns, to which he ran, and fired a pistol, but without effect, at an officer who remained by them, which the officer having returned with as little, offered to surrender himself and the guns, when Draper perceived that he had been followed by only four grenadiers. In the same instant, many of the French soldiers, encouraged by the ceasing of the English fire, and the backwardness of the men to advance with Draper, gathered again in the street, and began to fire; by which two of the grenadiers were killed, and the other two wounded before they got back to their own men, and Draper returned with them. Now the field-pieces and musketry on both sides commenced the hottest fire; but with encreasing havock from the enemy, whose numbers were augmented every moment by the battalion of India; and many of the English soldiers began in their turn to take shelter in the nearest houses and enclosures. Nevertheless, the brunt of this fight continued 20 minutes, when Draper convinced that no success was to be expected, and that the arrival of Lally's regiment from the seaside might cut off the whole detachment, ordered the retreat; but not a single drummer was found to beat it. The grenadiers of the Company's troops, not having room to be employed in the cross​street occupied by other platoons and the field-pieces, had gone into a large enclosure on the side of the street opposite to the rubbish; and as well as the others who had taken shelter in houses on the right were not apprized of the retreat: all who were marched huddled together down the cross-street, which opened in less than 300 yards upon the esplanade, and under the protection of the guns of the fort; but the enemy followed so close, and their fire both of cannon and musketry became so superior, that the two field-pieces in the rear of the detachment were abandoned; and the enemy's divisions had advanced to the enclosure in which the grenadiers had taken refuge, before they had thought of marching out. They were offered quarter, which they accepted, because they could make no effectual resistance, although they were eighty, the prime men of the garrison. During the fight in the western part of the black town, the regiment of Lally towards the sea were with much difficulty got under arms by Mr. Bussy; for most of the common men were reeling drunk. However, they had advanced, sheltered by houses from the fire of the fort, until they came within 300 yards of the street in which the English were retreating, and arrived there just as the line were coming out of it upon the esplanade, when the interval between them was open to the fire of the fort; the fear of which, and the mistrust of their intoxicated men, deterred the officers from leading them on to the fair attack before them; and they only fired random musketry, and from two field-pieces ill-pointed at Draper's line, who, as soon as out of the street, turned short to the south, and proceeded on the lower ground under the houses which skirted the west face of the esplanade, until they came opposite to the north-west angle of the glacis, and met in the way the covering party with Major Brereton, which had advanced and was waiting for them in good order: the nearer the line came to the fort, the greater became their hurry to get into it, for many ran over the glacis; but all the officers, with as many men as they could keep together, marched in order to the entrance on the eastern face of the north ravelin. No officer, excepting Lieutenant Billock, was killed on the spot; but Major Polier, Captain Hume, and Ensign ​Chace, were mortally wounded: Polier came into the fort, but the other two were taken. Captain Pascall and Lieutenant Elliot were shot through the body; Lieutenants Stephen Smith and Blair, and Ensign Cook, were wounded and taken; but recovered. Of rank and file 103 were taken, of whom 19 were wounded: fifty came in wounded, and fifty were left dead abroad, of whom all did not fall in the open action, for more than 20 were found killed in different houses, mostly stabbed with bayonets, and with their antagonists lying dead beside them; so that the garrison lost the lives or service of more than 200 soldiers and six officers by this sally. The French acknowledged 200 of their rank and file killed and wounded; and had 12 officers wounded, Saubinet mortally, and three killed on the spot; they lost only four prisoners, of whom one was the Count D'Estaign; his quarters were with Lally's regiment near the beach, and on the first firing he mounted his horse, and came galloping down the cross-street to the rear of the English grenadiers, whom, being short-sighted, or perhaps not seeing at all through the smoke, he took for French troops, nor perceived his mistake until within a few yards, when his horse stumbling, threw him, and before he could recover himself, he was seized by two drummers, who had their swords drawn to stab him, when Lieutenant Smith, the same who was afterwards taken prisoner himself, stepped between: his consequence being known, he was immediately sent away with an officer and a file of men to the fort. Mr. Lally blamed excessively his own regiment for not marching on the first fire, which had they done, and the troops been less intoxicated, it is probable that very few of the English detachment would have escaped. He endeavoured to fix the fault on Mr. Bussy, who justified himself by the delay of Mr. Lally's orders, without which, according to the regulations of the service, the regiment could not march; and then Bussy led them. Mr. Lally regretted exceedingly the loss of Saubinet and the Count D'Estaign, and with reason; for the one possessed all the qualities of an able general, and the other of an active partizan. ​Very few cases permit a strong sally from the garrison at the opening of a siege; the present was in some measure justified by the supposition that the enemy's troops were intoxicated and in confusion: but, notwithstanding the ardour of the onset, it left no advantageous impression of the Armness of the garrison with the French officers; and Murphy, one of the most experienced, proposed that a general assault should be made on the town in the ensuing night, in four divisions, and offered to lead the principal attack himself. It was lucky for them that his advice was not followed.
The next day the French army began to prepare their batteries, but in situations concealed by houses from the view of the ramparts; however, the motions to and fro left little doubt where they were at work, and shells as well as shot were fired at intervals throughout the day to interrupt them; although sparingly, except when certain of effect; and this prudent thrift was observed throughout all the days; until they opened their batteries: but their artillery which had embarked for the siege was still at a distance at sea, and on the day of the sally a party of four companies of Sepoys, detached with Lieutenant Airey by Captain Preston from Chinglapet, took the only 13 inch mortar, which was coming by land: it was escorted by 150 Sepoys; they were intercepted and defeated between Sadrass and Cobelong; but Airey, having no bullocks to draw off the mortar, ruined it as well as he could, and left it on the road.
Intelligence had been received that one of the vessels which had been laden with artillery at Alamparva, was detained at anchor off the point of Conimere, about 15 miles to the South of Sadrass, by the contrary wind and current; and a Dutch snow being in the road of Madrass, it was resolved to equip and employ her to attack the French vessel; accordingly 20 sailors belonging to the squadron, who had been lately exchanged, and 40 of the marines left by Mr. Pococke, were sent on board under the command of a naval officer of experience; but just as he was going to weigh, the sailors refused to serve, pretending that they knew the French ship was much too strong for them; on which they were relanded on the 10th, and the attempt was relinquished. ​The experience of the very few days that the fort had been invested, had convinced the Nabob of the increasing inconveniences which he and his family would suffer by continuing in it through the siege; and the garrison still more wished to be freed from the useless consumption and embarrassment of his retinue, which consisted of 400 men, with 200 horses, besides other cattle, who, nevertheless, could not decently be dismissed whilst he remained. It was therefore resolved, with mutual satisfaction, that he should proceed by sea with his wife, women, and children, and their immediate attendants, on board the Dutch snow, which was to land them at the Dutch settlement of Negapatam; from whence, being in the Tanjore country, they might proceed securely to Tritchinopoly. They embarked, attended by one of the council, on the night of the 20th, and before morning were out of sight; the Nabob's dependents were then told, that they might provide for their own safety, and in a few nights most of them quitted the town.
On the 16th at night, a sally was made to the north by 40 Europeans, and as many Sepoys; but they were discovered before they got clear of the glacis, and returned without firing. Two sallies were made on the night of the 19th; the one by 20 Europeans and 30 Sepoys, under the command of Ensign Bonjour, who proceeded to the northward under the beach to the first houses beyond the esplanade, when some of the Sepoys cried out they saw horse, and giving a scattering fire took flight, which obliged the Europeans, after giving theirs, to retreat likewise; but before they were out of reach, they received the enemy's, by which one was killed and two wounded. The other sally was of 1000 Sepoys, under the command of Jemaul Saheb, to the southward; they were to beat up a guard posted at the garden-house, and then proceed to St. Thomé, in order to seize a piece of battering cannon which was waiting there for bullocks, under the escort of a company of Sepoys: they marched over the Triplicane-bridge, but had scarcely got into the St. Thomé Road, when they received a fire from the first enclosure on the left, which threw the whole body into a panick, and all, excepting ​30 or 40 returned into the fort, and none of them had received a wound.
On the 21st another detachment of 1000 Sepoys with 20 Europeans sallied at o'clock in the day, under the conduct of Lieutenant Balantyne and Ensign Crowley, in order to beat up a party with 2 guns which were reported to be posted at the pagoda in the village of Triplicane about a mile to the south of the fort. They crossed the bar of the Triplicane river, and proceeded, driving several small Sepoy guards before them to the pagoda; where, not finding either the party or the guns they were seeking, they turned into the St. Thomé road, and crossing it, marched along the other road, which leads to the Choultry-plain, intending to attack the enemy's, guards on the outside of the enclosures near the village of Chindadrepettah; but before they arrived on the plain 300 Europeans were reported advancing from Triplicane river, on which the detachment marched back to the bridge, and returned by the strand of the river to the bar, where a company of grenadiers were waiting to cover their retreat. Whilst this detachment was abroad, two pieces of battering cannon, drawn by a great many bullocks and Coolies, were perceived crossing from the village of Chindadrepettah to the s. w. towards the black town, and being within random shot of the western bastions several cannon were fired upon them, which, soon stopt the bullocks and Coolies, and one of the guns sunk to the axel-tree in the mud; upon which 300 Sepoys, encouraged by the promise of a reward, marched with Jemaul Saheb to spike up these guns: on their appearance the drivers cast off and hurried away the bullocks, and the Coolies ran away; but before the Sepoys got to the bridge, which leads to Egmore, 2100 European horse, followed by some infantry, appeared advancing from the camp in the black town; on which the party was recalled into the fort.
On the l7th, all the English prisoners that had been taken at the sally were sent away for Pondicherry. They were 100, and were escorted by 150 of the European horse, 40 European foot, and 500 Sepoys. They moved slowly, and proceeded towards Sadrass, by the road near the sea shore, which passeth by Cobelong, where they were ​halting on the 19th. Captain Preston, zealous to recover the prisoners, marched in the night of the 19th, with the greatest part of thegarrison of Chinglapet, to intercept them. His party was only 80 Europeans, 400 Sepoys, and two field-pieces. They crossed the country, and halted at 10 o'clock next day six miles to the south of Sadrass. A channel of 20 miles in length extends from Cobelong to within three miles of Sadrass, and has at each extremity an opening to the sea, from which it receives its water, and at times enough to overflow the country a mile a-cross, in which state it was at present. Besides the road leading from Cobelong to Sadrass along the sea shore, there is another within the inundation, and Preston remaining where he had halted sent half his force over the water with lieutenant Airey, to wait for the enemy on the other road; two hours after appeared a body of 400 Sepoys, within some black horse, whom Preston kept at a distance and dispersed; and in the evening, Airey's party returned without any tidings of the escort, which had passed on to Sadrass before he crossed the water, on which Preston marched back to his garrison, where he arrived the next day.
The commandant Mahomed Issoof, after having been detained three days at Outatore by the rains, arrived on the 29th of November at Thiagar, where he was joined by the killidar, Kistnarow, with 250 horse, and 1000 foot: and Mahomed Issoof himself had enlisted 100 horse on the road. Their forces marched on the first of December, and invested Elavanasore, which stands ten miles to the west of Thiagar. There were in the fort two companies of Sepoys belonging to the French, with a lieutenant, Dumesnil, and three other Europeans, a Serjeant, and two gunners, and two field-pieces: this garrison defended themselves until the close of the evening, when they surrendered. Fifty of the Sepoys took service with Mahomed Issoof; the rest were disarmed and permitted to go where they pleased, but the four Europeans were sent to Tritchinopoly: some stores and ammunition were found in the fort. The next day Kistnarow went away with his own troops to get plunder, and on the 7th burnt a village in sight of Fort St. David; but Mahomed Issoof did not move until the 5th, when he proceeded to Tricolore, ​a fortified pagoda, ten miles to the north of Elavanasore. On the 6th, he was joined by 200 horse, 1500 Colleries, and 250 Peons, sent by the Polygar Tondiraan, and the day after attacked the pagoda, in which were three companies of Sepoys, who defended it with much activity until eight at night, when they offered to surrender provided they were permitted to march away with their arms and effects; and having already killed 15 and wounded 55 of Mahomed Issoofs troops, he accepted their terms; and then following the track of Kistnarow marched to the eastward, spreading his army to ravage the country, all of which, as far as the sea, paid revenue to the French. On the 15th they appeared at Villenore, within sight of Pondicherry, and brought so much terror, that the inhabitants of the adjacent villages took shelter in crowds within the bound hedge. On the 18th they cut the mound of the great tank at Valdoor, and let out the water to destroy the cultivations it was reserved to fertilize. The sword was little used, but fire every where, and the cattle were driven away to Tricaloor. Mr. Lally on hearing of these devastations, sent word to Mr. Pigot that he would retaliate, by putting men, women, and children to the sword in the territory about Madrass; he however forbore to execute the threat. On the 21st Mahomed Issoof was joined by 300 horse from Tanjore, not furnished by the king, but hired there with his permission, by Mahomed Issoofs agents; on the same day Kistnarow returned with all his troops to Thiagar. The next, Mahomed Issoof began his march from Villaporum to the northward, still continuing his ravages. Rajahsaheb, with a considerablebody of horse, had been for some time at Conjeveram, waiting to protect those districts from his excursions, and on his approach crossed the Paliar, and advanced to Salavauck, as seemingly with intention to give him battle; but on better intelligence of his force, took shelter under the guns of Vandiwash. Lambert was also on the other side of the Paliar with 400 Sepoys, 25 Europeans, and two guns, but on the same information marched round and stopt at two days distance in his rear. On the 25th Mahomed Issoof with his army joined Captain Preston at Chinglapet. ​On the 22d the Harlem, so long expected by the enemy, anchored in the evening at Onore, three leagues to the north of the black town. The next day, the Thames, laden with all kinds of provisions, arrived in the road from Vizagapatam; the wind was high, and the ship had but two anchors, and in the next forenoon parted from that by which she was riding, before one that was coming from the shore on a catamaran could reach her; and the Harlem getting under weigh from Onore at the same time, she stood out to sea, intending to regain the road in the evening, but before night was driven out of sight to leeward. She brought the news of the victory gained by Colonel Forde at Pedipore over the French troops with Mr. Conflans, which the fort announced to the enemy by 21 guns pointed upon their quarters from the northern bastions, and the fire of the whole garrison drawn up in the covered way. The next day the Harlem stopped and seized a vessel trading from the northward, laden with 1000 bags of rice, of which the French camp was much in want. The artillery brought by the Harlem was not sufficient to supply the intended batteries; but several cannon and mortars unladen from the Diligent and Expedition at Alamparvah, and brought in boats from thence to St. Thomé, passed every day from this place to the camp in the black town, and generally across the plain of Egmore, within sight of the fort; but since the sally of the Sepoys on the 21st, the escorts were too strong to be attacked by any parties which the garrison could with prudence risk at that distance. But the stock of gun-powder necessary for the batteries was not yet completed; for this was brought the whole way from Pondicherry or Alamparvah, by land; and, for the want of bullocks, with much delay.
The commandant Mahomed Issoof on his arrival at Chinglapet dispatched the greatest part of his horse, which were now near 1000, to ravage and destroy the country about Conjeveram, from which the French government drew revenues, and their army before Madrass, provisions. On the 27th, he marched himself with his infantry, intending according to instructions he had received from Mr. Pigot, to surprize the French troops which were quartered in the ​town of St. Thomé; but Captain Preston thinking this a hazardous enterprize, resolved to participate in it, and accompanied him with 80 Europeans, two field-pieces, and six companies of Sepoys, from his garrison. They arrived at the Mount on the 29th, and were rejoined the same day by the horse from Conjeveram: during the ensuing night, a detachment of 500 Europeans, of which 100 were cavalry, 600 Sepoys, and 800 black horse, marched from the black town and other posts, under the command of Mr. Soupire, and at day-break the next morning had passed the village of Sidapet, and were within sight of the Mount before their approach was known; however, the activity of Preston and Mahomed Issoof stopt the effects of the surprize, and in a few minutes the troops from both their camps were in march: the enemy halted and began to cannonade, which was returned and continued until 11 o'clock, when Captain Preston seeing an advantage, made a push with the Chinglapet troops, and seized two of their guns, whilst Mahomed Issoof with his, kept the main body at bay and prevented them from making an effort to rescue them; however, the enemy retreated in good order to Sidapet; for the greatest part of Mahomed Issoof's cavalry were, if possible, worse than the black horse with the French, and few of either ventured within arm's length of each other. Fifteen of the French Europeans, with some of their Sepoys and horses, were left dead on the plain, but they carried away their wounded, of whom fifteen were troopers; most of this execution was done by the field-pieces; the Chinglapet troops lost only one European but several Sepoys; and more of Mahomed Issoofs Sepoys with some of his horsemen, were killed and wounded; both Preston's and Mahomed Issoofs divisions continued at the Mount.
At break of day the next morning, 1000 Sepoys, with the troop of horse, sallied from the garrison of Fort St. George by the southern gate, in order to beat up the guards at the bar of the river, the garden-house, and the village of Triplicane, which they effected without opposition; they likewise intercepted a tappy or letter-carrier, coming with many to the French army, which gave information of the arrival of a vessel at Pondicherry from the island of Mauritius with 70 chests of silver. This ​day closed the year. Mr. Lally intended to open the next with his first fire against the fort; but the preparations to equip a large detachment intended to attack the troops with Preston and Mahomed Issoof, deferred the battery to the 2d of January.
The French, whilst in possession of Fort St. George, after taken by Labourdonnais, had made several improvements and additions to the slight works they found, which nevertheless, rendered the fort little capable of long resistance against the regular approaches of an European enemy; nor had they given any extention to the internal area, which did not exceed 15 acres of ground. Nevertheless, the English let the place remain in the state they received it from the French in 1751, until the beginning of the year 1756; when the expectation of another war with that nation, and the reports of the great preparations making in France against India, dictated the necessity of rendering it completely defensible. Accordingly all the Coolies, labourers, and tank diggers, which the adjacent country could supply, were from this time constantly employed on the fortifications: their daily number generally amounted to 4000 men, women, and children, who had continued on the works until lately driven away by the approach of the French army from Conjeveram.
An addition had been projected in the year 1743 by the engineer Mr. Smith, father of Captain Joseph Smith, which included as much ground as the former area of the fort: the ditch which marked its limits was then dug and faced with brick, and was supplied with water by a communication with the northern river, which at that time ran along the foot of the ancient wall to the west; but on account of the expence, nothing was then raised above the surface, and the naked ditch remained when De Labourdonnais came before the town, neither an obstruction nor an advantage to his attack. It was in the same condition in 1756, when the new works were resolved on; and the plan of Mr. Smith having been approved by Mr. Robins, the fortifications on this side were raised in conformity to that projection. To join the new rampart with the old bastion to the s. w. and to gain the ground in the new area which was occupied by the river, its bed was filled up, beginning from the s. w. bastion, with earth dug from the edge of the rising ground of the ​black town to the north-west, which the excavation removed 40 yards farther from the works: but only two-thirds of the bed of the river under the old wall had been choked up. The river, stopped in its former channel, was directed in another, which environed the west and part of the south face of the new works, washing in some places the foot of the glacis, until it rejoined its former bed at the head of the spit of sand. She old wall of the western side still remained as a retrenchment to capitulate on, in case the outward should be carried. The new extention on this side comprised three large bastions and their out-works. The southern of these three bastions communicated with the old bastion, which stood before on the s. w. angle, by the curtain raised across the former channel of the river; and this curtain increased the south face of the fort from 130 to 210 yards. Nevertheless, the works on this side were much less defensible than those to the west and north; but the surface of water and quagmire in the river before it, rendered this front inaccessible, excepting by the labours of a much greater army, than the present attack. The ground on the north of the fort gave the besieger much more advantage than on the other side; and this face was therefore strengthened in proportion: the two former bastions and rampart, as improved and left by the French, were suffered to remain; but the ditch and glacis which they had dug and raised, were, the one filled up, and the other removed further out, to admit better works. In the front of the N. w. bastion was raised another capable of mounting 28 guns; each of the faces were 100 yards in length, and a battalion might be drawn up on its rampart, although a large vacancy was left in the gorge, or back part, to increase the interval towards the former bastion behind, which this was intended to cover: it was, from its superior strength, called the royal bastion. A demi bastion, corresponding with the royal, was raised before the old N. E. bastion, that stood on the beach of the sea, which, however, the demi bastion did not entirely envelop; for its right hand or east face extending in a line parallel to the sea, adjoining to the shoulder angle of the northern face of the old bastion, leaving this face free to fire forward, but confining the extent of ground it commanded to the same width as the space between the east face of the demi bastion and the ​sea: to the westward, the old bastion had two guns clear of the demi bastion, which supplied the defence on this side by four guns in the flank and seven in its northern face. The two new bastions communicated with each other by a broad faussebray that passed along the foot of the old rampart and bastions; this faussebray was defended by a stout parapet seven feet high, which adjoined to the flanks of the new bastions. The ditch on this front was dry, because the ground here was seven feet higher than the level of the canal which supplied the ditches to the west and south: but a cuvette or trench, seven feet deep and 25 feet broad, was dug the whole length of the ditch, which before the faussebray was 180 feet wide, and before the bastions, ninety. The covered way of this front was broad and well palisaded, and contained between the two bastions a large ravelin capable of 18 guns, nine in each of its faces. The glacis was excellent, and little was wanting to complete the defences on this side, excepting mines, which the want of time and bricklayers had not allowed. The western face had likewise its covered-way palisaded, and glacis, and contained three ravelins, of which that in the middle was the largest. The eastern face extended along the beach of the sea within twenty yards of the surf; but ships could not approach near enough to batter it with any effect; and no guns could be brought to bear upon it by land. Before the sea gate, which stands in the middle of the curtain, was a battery of 13 guns; fifty yards on the right of this battery was a platform of old standing, with 14 guns to return salutes, which had hitherto been left without a parapet: the original curtain, although nothing more than a brick wall four feet thick, had never been strengthened; but a trench, six feet deep and 10 wide had lately been dug before it; and a ditch, with palisadoes, was intended to have been carried round the battery and the platform, but had not been executed at either. The only danger on this side was from a sudden assault or surprize, which could rarely come by boats landing unawares across the surf; but always, and with ease, by a body of men passing on the edge of it by either of the bastions at the extremities; to prevent which, a row of anchors, backed by palisades, and ​a trench were extended from the neck of each bastion quite into the surf. No buildings, excepting sheds, had been raised in the new ground taken into the westward; and in those of the old, the bomb-proof lodgments were not sufficient for the security of the garrison.
The first appearance of any work done by the enemy, had been discerned in the morning of the 18th of December, when Lally's regiment had completed a breast-work close to the sea, 580 yards from the covered way; it was sheltered by houses on the right, but open in front to a direct fire from the north-east and demi bastions: from this breast-work they continued a trench by two zig-zags 180 yards nearer the fort, which brought the trench 40 yards upon the esplanade: here they began a battery intended for many guns, which extended from the beach, parallel to the same fire as the breast-work, and behind this battery, on the right, they raised another for six mortars, which they completed by the end of the month; but the constant fire of the fort had retarded their work and prevented them from opening any embrasures in the battery for the cannon, because they had not enough ready for this, and another battery of six guns, which the regiment of Lorrain had on their side completed at the opening of a street on the rising ground to the westward, which enfiladed the face of the royal bastion, and the covered way before it: behind this battery were two mortars imprudently sheltered by the rubbish of houses, which had been demolished for the purpose. The garrison called this the Lorrain, and the other by the sea, Lally's battery.
At break of day, on the 2d of January, the Lorrain battery began to fire both its cannon and mortars, which were soon followed by four thirteen-inch mortars from Lally's, which threw their shells in vollies all together. The fort returned with shells as well as shot upon the Lorrain battery with 11 guns, four on the west face of the Royal, five on the flank of the Demi, and two on the west flank of the old north-east bastion: this superiority in less than an hour dismounted two of the Lorrain guns, and obliged them to withdraw the other four; but against the mortars, either here or at Lally's, ​the fire of the defences could have little effect, excepting by luck, since they were concealed and defended, as usual, by a high and strong parapet: this annoyance, therefore, continued until seven in the evening, during which time only 80 shells had been, thrown from both, all of which fell about the middle of the inhabited part of the fort, where stood the government house, against which they seemed to have been aimed, and two went through the upper roof: much mischief was also done to the adjoining buildings; but not a single person was either killed or wounded by their fall or explosions, nor had any one suffered by the cannon shot of the morning.
As soon as the night closed, several of the principal European women, with their children, were sent away in three massoolah boats, to reside under the protection of the Dutch settlement at Sadrass; they had not been gone two hours before intelligence was received from Captain Preston, that a French detachment had surprized the fort of Sadrass, taken possession of the town, and made the garrison and all the Dutch inhabitants prisoners; but it was too late to recal the Massoolahs. Another letter from Preston, which came in the morning, gave information of an action which he had sustained the day before.
The town of St. Thomé was become a post of great consequence to the French army. The remains of an ancient ditch and bad ground round most parts of the town, with the river and the English redoubt to the south, secured it from surprize, unless attempted by very superior numbers. They accordingly made the town the station of their boats, as well as the temporary repository of their convoys coming by land, and had likewise established in it one of the hospitals of their camp: but the junction of Mahomed Issoofs troops, with Preston's, rendered the maintenance of the town an object of much greater doubt and solicitude, than when it was only exposed to sallies from the garrison of Fort St. George; and the body of French troops which had engaged Preston and Mahomed Issoof at the Mount on the 30th of December retreated immediately after the action to St. Thomè. The day after the action Preston received intelligence that the partizan, Lambert, was ​advancing from the south, with a large quantity of stores and a strong escort; on which he moved from the Mount, in order to intercept them, and encamped at Trivambore, which is a village with a pagoda, situated two miles to the south of St. Thomé, and one from the sea shore. He was followed by the troops of Mahomed Issoof; it having been agreed, in order to prevent jealousies as well as confusion, that the two commands should move and encamp in separate bodies. The troops of Mahomed Issoof consisted of 3500 foot, 500 horse, with three bad field-pieces; they encamped to the north of the village, and extended almost to the sea, with their front towards St. Thomé Captain Preston, with his division, which consisted of 600 Sepoys, with 80 Europeans, and two brasa three-pounders, pitched their tents to the south, looking out for Lambert towards Sadrass. Mr. Lally, apprehensive that they intended to attack St. Thomé, increased the European infantry there to 500 rank and file, and the European horse to 150. Mr. Soupire commanded, and leaving all the black troops, whether horse or Sepoys, marched at three in the morning with the Europeans only, who were 650 horse and foot, and without field-pieces. Half an hour before day they fell on the camp of Mahomed Issoof, which had gained no warning of their approach. The surprize and confusion was so great, that Mahomed Issoof himself escaped at the back of his tent, and his troops fled every way under the enemy's fire, which lasted 15 minutes without interruption; during which Preston turned out his line, and sent forward his piquets to discover, who returned without perceiving any signs of troops to the south; at the same time the crowd of fugitives shewed that the enemy were in possession of Mahomed Issoof's camp, and Preston, judging that their order must have been much broken by the onset, the action, the darkness, and the interruptions spread over the ground, immediately resolved to attack them; and marching with his whole division at the back of the village to the westward, came on the flank of Mahomed Issoof's camp, almost as soon as his approach was discovered; where the French troops, thinking they had routed all their enemies, were collecting the plunder; ​nor could the officers recal them to any order, before the fire of Preston's division, led by his two field-pieces loaded with grape, scoured through the camp, and his musketry was augmented by the return of the best of Mahomed Issoof's Sepoys. Nevertheless, some of the enemy in different parties endeavoured to rally; but, having no strong or collected fire to return, they fell, the more they ventured to make resistance, and all at length broke in confusion; but, when at some distance, the officers prevailed on them to stop, and they marched off in order. They had got possession of the two field-pieces, of Mahomed Issoof's division, but did not tarry to draw them off. Thirty-six of their Europeans were counted dead; of whom one was a captain, and another a lieutenant. Of the English troops in both actions two Europeans were killed and six wounded; of the Sepoys 60, and 121: but only three of the black cavalry, and five horses were killed. On a review at three o'clock in the afternoon, only 700 of Mahomed Issoof's Sepoys were numbered; all the rest of his troops, cavalry, Colleries, and Sepoys, on a supposition that Preston's division had been as easily routed as themselves, fled across the country, nor thought themselves safe before they got under the guns of Chinglapet; and, according to their example, the market-people ran away with their bullocks and provisions, of which there was not sufficient for one meal left in the camp; and this want obliged the troops which remained to march away the same evening with the appearance of defeat, as far as Vendaloor, in order to meet a supply from Chinglapet.
The superior fire of the fort in the morning determined the enemy to wait until they could renew the attack with less disproportion. On the 4th a small sloop laden with stores and ammunition worked through the road and anchored near the Harlem, and massoolas had every day passed between St. Thomé, and the black town. At day-break on the 6th, a volley of six mortars were thrown from Lally's battery, as a signal of preparation, and they were the first, either shot or shell, which the enemy had fired since their mortars ceased on the evening of the 2d, although the fort had constantly fired both to interrupt their work. At sun-rise they commenced a regular cannonade ​and bombardment, which consisted of seven guns and six large mortars from Lally's, and seven guns, with a howitz, from the Lorrain battery, with the two mortars in this quarter, which, however, fired but seldom. Although the Lorrain battery fired only from seven embrasures, it had been augmented to ten, of which the additional four were in a return, or extending from an angle to the left of the other six, and bore upon Pigot's, the next bastion on the west front to the left of the royal. The enemy's fire, both of shot and shells, was directed more against the buildings than against the works. The fort returned on Lally's battery 11 guns, from the old north-east bastion, the north ravelin, and the royal bastion. Against the Lorrain battery, likewise, eleven guns, four from the royal bastion, two from the north-west curtain near Pigot's bastion, and three from the centre ravelin called St. George's on the west: but more guns bore upon the batteries, if it had been necessary to use them.
The enemy's mortars continued through the night, and were rejoined in the morning by the cannon of the preceding day, and two more, from a battery intended for four, which was raised on the esplanade, adjoining to the west-side of the burying-ground, about 100 yards to the west of Lally's battery, and almost in the perpendicular of the N. w. or saliant angle of the royal bastion, from which it was distant 450 yards. The two guns, now opened in the burying ground, bore upon the west face of the north ravelin and on the west flank of the old N. E. bastion. The enemy's cannon still continuing to point high, did little damage to the works, but the buildings, much damaged before, suffered greatly by the fall of their shells. At the twilight of the next day, the 8th of the month, the three massoolas which had been sent with the English women to Sadrass, landed at the fort. The French being in possession of Sadrass, had seized these boats, laden them with 50 barrels of gunpowder, and several other military stores, and sent them with the same boatmen guarded by a French soldier in each, to their own army in the black town. At four in the morning when opposite to the fort, each of the soldiers had fallen fast asleep, on which the boatmen concerted in their own language with ​the certainty of not being understood, although overheard; and having first poured water into the firelocks, overpowered and bound the soldiers, and then landed the boats at the sea gate. This uncommon instance of fidelity and spirit in men, who are deemed a mean and outcast race, was rewarded and encouraged by paying them immediately the full value of the gunpowder and stores.
The enemy's mortars renewed at midnight, and at day-break their cannon, with two pieces more, mounted in the battery at the burying ground. In the afternoon they set fire to a warehouse near the s. E. bastion, full of saltpetre and brimstone, which could not be extinguished for several hours; during which the enemy plied the spot, where the black column of smoke arose, with shells and plunging shot, which did no damage. Lieutenant Brooke, a deligent officer in the artillery, was killed by a cannon ball in the demi-bastion. The enemy's ship Diligent, reladen with artillery and all kind of stores, anchored in the morning off the black town, having been 30 days in working along the coast from Alamparva, although the straight distance is not 60 miles.
The same fire, but more frequent on both sides, continued on the 9th, the enemy's mortars still against the buildings; but their cannon, which in the two preceding days had only silenced two guns, in this disabled or dismounted five, and two mortars. In the night, besides the usual repairs, iive embrasures were cut through the glacis of the saliant angle before the demi-bastion, pointing obliquely against Lally's battery, and guns were mounted in them; but Lally's, nevertheless, dismounted two guns on the demi-bastion the next day; and on the 11th all the five towards the land on the old N. E. bastion were disabled by this and the Lorrain battery. Early this morning the enemy likewise opened two more guns in a ricochet battery intended for four, which they had raised near the English hospital, on the rising ground fronting the centre ravelin on the west side of the fort, against which, however, it was not intended to fire, but to enfilade the royal bastion: it likewise bore upon part of the north-west curtain towards Pigot's. Notwithstanding this battery stood at a much greater distance from the fort, than any of the other three, it was more exposed than either ​of them to a sally; for none of the guns had embrasures, but fired, plunging over the parapet, and the guard might be beaten up, and the guns spiked, before succour could arrive from the nearest of the enemy's quarters: aware of this they had carried on a trench, from the end of the street through which Draper had marched to the foot of the bridge, which crossed the ground fronting the battery, and a picquet guard was constantly kept in the trench, ready to give the alarm. They had likewise began a breast-work at the bar of the Triplicane river to the south, in order to annoy the black people and cattle, which were sheltered on the spit of sand at the foot of the glacis on this side; and as many inconveniences would ensue from their dispersion, it was resolved to drive the enemy from the break-work.
Accordingly a detachment of 200 Europeans, of which half were grenadiers, and 400 Sepoys, marched under the command of Major Brereton, between four and five in the morning, whilst it was still dark: when arrived at the bar they received a fire from some Sepoys posted behind the unfinished parapet, which killed one and wounded two of the grenadiers; but, as the Sepoys immediately disappeared, the fire was not returned, and the detachment proceeded through the coco-nut groves to the left, without meeting any other opposition, until they came into the lane which leads into the St. Thomé road, along the garden wall of the governor's house, when a trooper, sent forward, discovered a party of the enemy drawn up at the end of the lane, with a field-piece. On this intelligence the advanced guard of grenadiers marched up briskly, fired, and pushing on, received the discharge of the gun loaded with grape, as well as the musketry that supported it, by which five of them were wounded, and Lieutenant Robson mortally: the rest, nevertheless, seized the gun before the enemy had time to fire it again, who took shelter in a house and garden on their right, from whence their fire killed three Sepoys and wounded two, with an European, before they were dislodged. It was yet scarcely twilight, and as the grenadiers were drawing off the gun, Jemaul Saheb, the commandant of the Sepoys, who had been prying in the St. Thomè Road, discovered another ​gun a little below the garden-house, and appearing jealous of the honour, was permitted to seize and bring it off with a party of Sepoys only, which they effected without receiving any return to their first fire. The detachment marched back the same way they had come, and arrived in the fort at sun-rise with the two guns, and five European prisoners, one of whom was an officer severely wounded. Previous to this, two other, but slight sallies had been made; the one to the N. W. bridge, which fired into the enemy's trench before the hospital battery: the other, to disturb the workmen in the zig-zags to the northward; this party advanced to the head of the work, killed a centinel, and brought away two or three muskets, without any loss. The enemy's mortars slackened this day, but the fire of their cannon continued with as much vivacity as before, and disabled four guns, which as usual were replaced before the next morning.
By this time it was evident that the enemy intended to direct the stress of their attack against the two northern bastions, which dictated the necessity of securing them with additional defences: accordingly a palisade was begun in the ditch on the hither side of the cuvette, to extend quite round the demi bastion; a blind, or rampart of earth, at 30 yards distance, in the ditch before the N. E. bastion; and a fascine battery of six guns, on the strand between the east curtain and the sea, a little in the rear of the shoulder angle of this bastion. Early the next morning, which was the 13th, a shell from the fort set fire to some huts behind Lally's battery, which spreading, caught a magazine, and blew it up, with a number of loaded bombs: no fire passed this day either from or against the N. E. or demi bastions; and no gun was dismounted in any part of the fort; but the enemy doubled the number of their workmen in the zig-zag, who were interrupted as much as possible by what fire bore upon them from the royal bastion, the north ravelin, and the embrasures of the saliant angle before the demi bastion; in the night the enemy fired with a field-piece loaded with grape, from the head of their works, on a small party posted near this angle, under the cover of a boat, and wounded three of them, on which the rest retired into the covered-way. ​In the morning of the 14th, the enemy, opened a battery of three mortars between Lally's and the burying-ground, but in the rear of both, and concealed by the houses between them, from the sight of the fort: their fire this day disabled a mortar and two guns: during the night a constant fire of musketry from the covered-way, and of cannon and mortars from the works of the north front, was kept up against the enemy's approaches, and retarded their progress. On the 15th, they had 10 guns mounted in Lally's, and kept up through the day a fire from 21, besides their 11 mortars as before: but Lally's guns did all the mischief to the works, dismounting two guns in the demi, and two in the north-east bastion, and their shot, which flew over, took in flank the three other batteries towards the sea, and dismounted two guns on the sea-gate battery, two on the saluting battery, and one on the s. E. or St. Thomè bastion, in all eleven: the fire on the trenches continued through the night, from which the enemy, nevertheless, detached a picquet, which drove in the party posted on the salient angle of the glacis.
The enemy's cannonade continued on the 16th, with the addition of two guns on Lally's battery, which now fired with 12, all 24 or 18 pounders, to which the fort could only oppose the direct fire of six of equal weight, which were from the north-east and demi bastions; for the guns in the salient angle of the glacis, and in the fascine battery on the ground below, were of inferior calibres; and as it was constantly necessary to employ many men in reinstating the damages of the demi bastion, a traverse was raised to preserve the guns in its flank from the enfilading fire of Lally's; and whilst this and other work was doing, the three embrasures of its face to the right, which were open to the shot of Lally's, were kept closed until the next day; so that no guns in this bastion were either fired against, or dismounted by that battery; which having the more to use against the other works disabled one on the north-east, and obliged the garrison to withdraw the five guns in the salient angle of the glacis; and as the trenches were now advanced within 50 yards, these embrasures were filled up, and the earth levelled again to the general slope of the glacis. At 11 at night a sally was made from St. George's or the west ravelin ​to fire into the trench extending before the hospital battery; but the guard there taking the alarm in time, 50 men advanced across the bridge leading to it, and after a fire given and returned, drove the party back into the covered-way. Another sally of 12 Europeans was made at one in the morning, under the Command of Ensign Barnes, against the head of the enemy's trenches, into which they gave their fire, and finding only five or six men in it, advanced, until a relief, of 40 or 50 came up from the rear, who drove them back, and before they regained the covered-way, Ensign Barnes, with two of the soldiers, were killed. Before and after this sally, a constant fire, as in the preceding nights, was kept up until morning on the enemy's workmen; who, notwithstanding these interruptions, advanced the sap above 20 yards.
Even the garrison acknowledged the activity of the enemy's progress, and frequent letters had been dispatched, enjoining Captain Preston and Mahomed Issoof to approach, and interrupt their operations; but these officers were no longer masters of their own. Retreating after the action at Trivambore, they arrived at Vendalore on the 3d, where they found some provisions. Preston's division was unimpaired; of Mahomed Issoof's, most of the Tritchinopoly Sepoys, and 150 of the new-levied horse, had rejoined the rest of those who had fled to Chinglapet, who were the 1500 Colleries and 500 horse sent by Tondiman, the 300 horse from Tanjore, and the same number of his own levies; and all these troops refused to march back from Chinglapet to Vendalore. The kind of warfare for which they were intended, and only fit, rendered their desertion in the present conjuncture of too much consequence to be neglected: and after several ineffectual messages, the two commanders marched on the 6th from Vendalore, and joined them at Chinglapet. On expostulation, the cavalry in general pleaded with much complaint, the loss, although owing to their own cowardice, of their baggage and effects at Trivambore, and little less than declared, that they had not engaged in the service, with the expectation of exposing their horses against Europeans, but were willing to act in their usual modes; which Preston rightly interpreted plunder; and to gratify their ​wishes, consented to march with them into the French districts around Conjeveram, in which they continued several days employed in plunder and ravage; and no shelter grounds protected the cattle from the search of the Colleries. On the 13th, Preston thinking they had been sufficiently indulged with booty, began his march back from Conjeveram, intending to come again in sight of Madrass; but on the first halt, all the troops which he had endeavoured with so much complacence to conciliate, Colleries as well as cavalry left him and crossed the Paliar. This second desertion left no doubt of their inutility, and Preston resolved not to act with them any longer, even if they should return of their own accord; but as the horse of Rajahsaheb, who were 800, and the European cavalry of the French army, rendered it impossible for the infantry of both the English commands, although many, if unsupported by horse, to continue near enough to harass the enemy's camp, without more risk to themselves, Preston resolved to march to Arcot, in order to collect a body of better cavalry, of which he heard several parties were waiting ready to take service on the western confines of the province. Mr. Pigot received intelligence of this motion and its motives on the 16th of the month, but concealed it, as every other which might dispirit the garrison.
The enemy's fire continuing the same on the 17th as the day before, dismounted three guns and a mortar. Ever since the ninth of the month, two ships had been seen off St. Thomé which had every day weighed anchor, endeavouring to get to the northward, but were constantly stemmed by the current from gaining ground; but this evening they passed the road, and joined the three other vessels off the black town. They were the Expedition, laden with artillery and stores, which had left Pondicherry on the 12th of December; and the Bristol of 30 guns, manned with Europeans, which had lately arrived there from Persia, and was immediately laden with shot and shells for the camp.
On the morning of the 18th the enemy had completed three more embrasure's in Lally's battery, which joining the former on the ​left, reached almost to the surf, and being a little turned to the s. W. bore upon the north ravelin, which before night was much impaired by them. Nevertheless, the general fire from the north was diminished, for these new embrasures in Lally's were supplied with three guns from other embrasures of the same battery; and the four in the Lorrain, which bore upon the royal bastion, ceased entirely, and their embrasures were filled up; but Lally's and the burying-ground disabled two guns in the demi bastion, two in the north ravelin, a mortar in the royal, and rendered the three northern embrasures of the N. E. bastion unfit for service. A party of the enemy had been employed through the day in raising a breastwork at a little distance to the left behind their former post at the bar, and began to fire from it at dusk with two field-pieces in barbet against some Sepoys posted on the spit of sand: their mortars continued firing vehemently through the day and night, but, as from the beginning of the bombardment, still against the inside of the fort. Every day one, two, or three of the garrison, and sometimes more, had suffered by the fire; but on this day five Europeans and three Sepoys were killed, and five of each wounded. Notwithstanding a constant fire of cannon and small arms, wheresoever probable, through the night, the enemy advanced their zig-zag across the foot of the salient angle of the glacis, inclining a little to the left towards the surf; and being so near, the governor issued instructions to the officers of the different posts, how to conduct themselves and dispose their parties in case they should assault the outworks.
The next day, which was the 19th, the enemy changed their two field-pieces to the south for two eighteen-pounders, from which they fired shot into the fort: in the forenoon their musketry in the advanced or second crochet had fired smartly upon the north ravelin and the covered-way; their mortars continued incessantly through the day, and set fire to three buildings in different parts of the fort at once, but ceased in the night: during which they only produced their third zig-zag obliquely from the ridge of the glacis to the water-mark of the sea, which was not more than 15 yards. The next day, which was ​the 20th, they fired none of the four guns on Lally's battery, which bore on the north-east bastion; but continued with the seven bearing on the demi bastion, and the three on the north ravelin, although more sparingly than usual, but those in the burying-ground battery with more vivacity: a platform on the demi bastion, and a mortar on the north ravelin were ruined by shells: five Europeans were killed; and seven, with three Sepoys, wounded. During the night, they threw few shot or shells, and made but little advance in their approaches, but enlarged their second crochet, and worked hard in erecting a battery, which projected from it along their last or third zig-zag leading to the crochet which terminated this zig-zag on the glacis. Two small sallies were made upon the trenches during the night, in both of which only one European was killed.
On the 21st the enemy's batteries remained almost silent, but the musketry in their trenches fired briskly on all they saw moving. At five in the evening, a serjeant and ten men went out by a sallyport in the east curtain, and an officer with 20 by the barrier in the north-east angle of the covered-way, who were followed by 40 pioneers with their captain: the soldiers advanced to the second crochet, which was only 30 yards from the foot of the glacis; out of which their first fire drove all the troops, who were mostly Sepoys: after which they maintained the crochet for 10 minutes before the guard of the trenches arrived; and during this time the pioneers worked hard in destroying the gabions, and what other materials were collected for the construction of the intended battery: the sally was preceded and followed by a fire of mortars, cannon, and small arms from the fort, upon all whom the alarm brought within sight and reach; and it was supposed with much effect; two Serjeants were killed, and five of the pioneers wounded; in the fort one European and one Sepoy were killed, and a ten inch mortar disabled. In the night the enemy worked hard in thickening the crochet out of which they had been driven, completed their third zig-zag, which extended 100 yards beyond it, mostly on the glacis, but inclining to the left of the salient angle; and not only began, but finished their ​third crochet, which extended to the right from the head of this zig-zag across the ridge of the glacis: they threw few mortars during the night, but mostly into the works; their cannon slackened likewise the ensuing day, which was the 22d, and especially from Lally's battery, in which most of the embrasures ware blinded; nevertheless, the few employed were very effectual, for the repeated repairs, which had been made in the demi and north-east bastions, rendered the substituted merlons so weak that they crumbled to every shot: a twelve-pounder was disabled on the north ravelin by a shell, three Europeans and a Sepoy were killed, and seven with nine Sepoys wounded. In the night the enemy pushed on the sap of the fourth zig-zag 20 yards beyond their third crochet, and having made a small return or shoulder to the left, continued it from hence quite up to the salient angle of the covered way, and fixed some gabions on the crest of the glacis on the right hand of this angle; the contest was now brought very near the walls, and was disputed without intermission: the whole progress of the fourth zig-zag was exposed to the fire of the stockade of palmyra trees which the garrison had planted across the east side of the glacis to the surf, and from this stockade the guard kept up a constant fire of musketry on the enemy's workmen, as did another guard from the salient angle of the glacis; and parties of grenadiers were sent out every hour along the beach beyond the stockade to fire upon the third crochet, and all the sap advanced beyond it; cannon, mortars, and musketry, were likewise fired throughout the night from every part that bore upon their work; but could not stop it, for the enemy had increased the number both of their workmen and guards; they likewise finished their battery at the end of their third zig-zag, which shouldered on their second crochet, and opened it the next morning, which was the 23d, with four guns; but it was so ill constructed, that only one of the guns could be brought to bear upon the north ravelin, which it was intended to batter. The Lorrain battery remained closed, but the hospital, the burying-ground, and Lally's, with the mortars as before, continued a slackening fire, the cannon only in the day, but the mortars through the night likewise. The ammunition of both ​began to wax scant, and they were waiting for more which had been embarked on the 14th in a brigantine from Pondicherry. However, their fire disabled a twenty-four-pounder on the royal bastion, and completed the ruin of all the embrasures on the right face of the ravelin; in which a shot from Lally's penetrated quite through the merlon: in the night, the enemy attempted to push their gabions close to the covered way of the N. E. salient angle, from whence pioneers were sent to overset them, who rolled some into the sea, and pulled others into the covered-way; this contest was maintained at repetitions for three or four hours, and supported by the hottest fire of musketry, and of grape shot from the north-east bastion, and the fascine battery on the beach: 70 discharges were made out of one of the guns: five Europeans were killed and ten wounded in the night and day, most of whom suffered in these attacks: one Sepoy was likewise killed, and six wounded: on the 24th, a twenty-four pounder was disabled on the north-east bastion, of which the works had scarcely received in the night a repair adequate to the detriment of the preceding day: but six of the embrasures in the north ravelin were restored; the other three still remained unfit for service.
At seven in the evening, a party of the enemy, consisting of 50 men, who had waited for the dark, advanced from the nearest crochet to the stockade, from which the guard, which consisted only of 12 men, ran away to the blind before the N. E, bastion; they were immediately sent back with the addition of a more resolute Serjeant and ten grenadiers; but were scarcely returned, when this serjeant was shot dead through the stockade; on which the party stopped, waiting for directions; and the officer commanding at the blind recalled them; after which it was thought imprudent to make another attempt to recover the stockade, although capable of giving much annoyance to the enemy's work.
At night, a messenger from Tritchinopoly brought a letter from Captain Joseph Smith, with intelligence he had received from Angengo. The Presidency ten days before had received advices from Mr. Pococke, that the squadron had arrived on the 10th of December at Bombay, where he found six of the company's ships ​and two of the line, with 600 men of Draper's regiment on board; which were arrived there a few days before, having passed the Cape of Good Hope too late in the season to gain the coast of Coromandel; the letter from Captain Smith gave intelligence that the company's ships, with all the troops on board, had sailed under the convoy of two frigates from Bombay on the 31st: and the spies which came in from the enemy's camp reported that this news was likewise known there, and had determined Mr. Lally to make a general assault on the fort this very night; on which the whole garrison and all the inhabitants were stationed and remained under arms at their respective posts until the morning.
The fire of the cannon, musketry, and mortars, from the fort, although maintained constantly throughout the night, did not prevent the enemy from advancing their sap along the glacis, on the east face of the covered-way, as far as the left of the stockade, and they made a return on the right to the crest of the glacis; but had not time to extend the sap to the left, along the front of the stockade towards the surf, nor even to complete a proper lodgment in the return, the want of which left their workmen exposed to the fire of the covered-way; but on the other side of the salient angle they had raised gabions, and made considerable progress in a retrenchment intended for a battery. The night passed without any alarms of the supposed assault; and the ensuing day, which was the 25th, continued with the usual fire of cannon and Mortars until two in the afternoon, when a sally was made by the guard at the blind, and the same number of grenadiers, in all forty soldiers with arms, who covered twenty pioneers with tools. Just before the blind, on the east face of the covered way, parallel to the same face of the demi bastion, was a passage cut in the glacis towards the surf; through which the party passed, and then proceeding along the surf, round the right of the stockade, came in flank of the head of the enemy's sap, from which their first fire drove all their guards and workmen, who retreated to their retrenchment at the salient angle waiting for succours; during which the English soldiers maintained their ground, and the pioneers overset the gabions, some into the sea, others into the ​covered-way, and destroyed whatsoever implements they found: this attack lasted 20 minutes, by which time the enemy had gathered, and were advancing in much superior numbers, from the retrenchment; upon which the party was recalled, and retreated, giving and receiving fire. A serjeant with three grenadiers were killed; six others of the soldiers, with Captain Black, who commanded the sally, and Lieutenant Fitzpatrick, were wounded. The enemy's artillery bore most on the royal and demi bastions; their mortars falling on the works wounded many more than usual. The total loss, including that in the sallies, was eight Europeans and three Sepoys killed, and 17 Europeans with 13 Sepoys wounded.
The enemy's sap being advanced to the east flank of the coveredway threatened immediate danger by surprize on the east face of the fort, to which the sea-gate gave the fairest opening; for the embrasures in the north flank of the battery before it had been ruined by the enemy's shot which had missed or flown over the N. E. bastion and fascine battery; and the gateway itself was a spacious arch shut occasionally with folding doors; so that, should the enemy ever make a general assault on the ruined works to the north, a party sent at the same time along the surf, or even in boats, might force their way through the gate with petards; and this party might pass without much interruption; for the fascine battery which barricaded the beach was nearly demolished. The whole of the working party of the night was therefore allotted to remedy these defects, and before morning they repaired the fascine battery, restored the embrasures of the battery before the sea-gate, bricked up the arch of the gateway, and opened a small gate on the left hand, which had been closed. In the succeeding nights the workmen began and continued the intended ditch with palisadoes round the sea-gate battery, which had hitherto been deferred for services of more immediate necessity. The enemy employed the night with equal diligence, and pushed the sap of their retrenchment from the salient angle 70 yards along the north face of the covered-way, and widened the work in an excavation sufficient to contain cannon and a large detachment of troops: this work, with what was done the night before on ​the other side, entirely embraced the salient angle of the coveredway.
The following day, which was the 26th, the enemy fired most of their shot into the town; and most of their shells, as in the preceding night, into the works of the north front, by which a twentyfour pounder was dismounted on the N. E. bastion, and the casualties from the evening to the evening were five sepoys and one European killed, and 11 wounded, of whom were the Lieutenants Lang, and Little, who lost his left arm. In the succeeding night the enemy widened and raised their work on the crest of the glacis, notwithstanding the constant fire of the defences; and no guards could any longer be kept at the salient angle they had invested, but centries were advanced every quarter of an hour from the blind before the N. E. bastion, to observe whether they were beginning any new works, but discovered none. In the 24 hours to the evening of the 27th, no damage was done to any of the artillery, but five Europeans were killed and five wounded, and one with five Sepoys. The enemy's workmen remained very silent in their trenches through the night.
Three hundred Sepoys were intended to sally before day-break on the 28th, in order to surprize the enemy's battery of two guns to the south of the bar: but marching too late were discerned, and received the fire of the battery before they had crossed the bar, on which they were immediately recalled into the fort. In the morning the enemy began to fire again from the battery near their second crochet, which had remained silent ever since they opened it ineffectually on the 23d, and during this interval they had endeavoured to rectify the erroneous construction of the embrasures, which were intended against the right face of the north ravelin: they had likewise brought up two ten-inch mortars to this battery, with which, and three guns, they commenced their fire; but one of the guns failed at nine o'clock, and another at ten; in the afternoon another, which they were trying in the 4th embrasure, was disabled by a shot from the fort; after which, the cannonade from this battery ceased entirely, but the mortars continued. At noon a party with many ​yoke of oxen assembled at the bar, in order to draw off the two guns there; but the firing of the fort soon made them remove the cattle out of reach. The casualties from the preceding night to the evening of this day were one European and one Lascar killed, with ten Europeans and nine Sepoys wounded.
During the night the enemy drew off one of the guns at the bar; their workmen carried on a ruining sap from the left of the palmyra stockade across the glacis, and on a level lower than the covered way, intending to pass under this likewise in order to open the counterscarp of the ditch; they executed this work with so much silence that the garrison had no suspicion of it until two the next afternoon, when the sap was advanced as far as the scarp, or brick facing of the glacis, and being carried too high, the earth of the covered way with the facing fell in, and discovered them; some grenadiers were immediately sent to fire and throw grenades into the hole, which obliged the miners to stop, but they renewed their sap lower. Their mortars continued during these 24 hours against the works. A nine-pounder was disabled on the N. w. ravelin by the fire from the hospital; and the embrasures of Pigot's bastion, and of Lawrence's, the next on the left, were much damaged by shells and stray shot; for both these works were out of the front attack, nor was there a single gun which bore directly upon them; for the enemy had for some days ceased the 4 they opened on the 7th of the month in this direction, which joined to the left shoulder of the Lorrain battery. The casualties from the evening to the evening were two Europeans and three Sepoys killed, and two and one wounded. In the ensuing night the enemy threw many shells into the town, and continued hard at work both in their covered sap, and in raising a battery on the crest of the glacis, but with so much silence, that the garrison could not discover what they were doing: the working party of the fort were employed in restoring the right face of the north ravelin, and the same side of the caponiere leading to it across the ditch.
In the interval since the desertion of the black troops at Conjeveram, several, letters and other notices had been received from Captain ​Preston and Mahomed Issoof. Pursuing their intention of enlisting a body of better cavalry, they arrived on the 12th at Lallapet, a town of great resort, 10 miles to the N. w. of Arcot, where their invitations soon collected 500 Moorish horse, and 600 Morratoes. The Nabob's brother, Abdulwahab Cawn, was at this time residing with their mother at Chitore, and being urged by her representations to some compunction for the distress of the Nabob's affairs, he proffered his assistance; on which Mahomed Issoof, with a small escort, went to Chitore, and in a few days returned, accompanied by Abdulwahab with 1000 horse, and more foot, being the troops he had kept in pay since he quitted Arcot in the preceding year. Overtures were likewise made to a body of 3000 Morratoes belonging to Balagerow, and commanded by an officer named Gopaulrow, who were lying at the pass of Damalcherry; but Gopaulrow insisted on receiving money before any moved, on which Preston sent him the bill of an opulent shrof for 60,000 rupees, which was to be paid as soon as the horse arrived at Velore; but as the messages and march required eight days, the army in the interval set out from Lallapet on the 22d, and halted on the 25th at Trivalore, within four miles of the fort of Tripassore, in which, as well as Pondamalée, the French had a garrison of Sepoys; but the pettah of Pondamallée, being much opener than of Tripassore, Mahomed Issoof sent off a detachment to plunder it, which they effected after some skirmishing with the Sepoys from the fort, of whom several were killed. Besides the booty they got in the pettah, the detachment returned with 3000 sheep and oxen, which had been collected from the country, and were kept under the protection of the garrison, in the common round the fort, to supply the French army before Madrass. The Nabob's brother Nazeabulla, who had accompanied Mr. Moracin to Pondicherry, and afterwards the French army to the siege, had lately returned to Nelore; and the example and exhortations of his brother Abdulwahab, had reclaimed him so far, as to promise to join him at Trivalore with his force; but he delayed, and the army having been reinforced with ammunition and two more three-pounders from Chinglapet, proceeded on the 27th to Trimliwash, a town situated on the ​skirts of Malrawzes wood, 12 miles to the N. w. of Madrass. The Polygar, with an agent who had been sent to him by the governor, came to the camp, and promised to bring 2000 Peons and a supply of rice: but, finding no money was intended to be given him, returned the next day into his wood, and appeared no more. Mahomed Issoof, as soon as the camp was pitched, rode with a party of horse as far as Maskelyne's garden, which stands two miles N. w. of Fort St. George, where most of the oxen belonging to the French army were kept under the care of a guard of Sepoys and black horse; whom Mahomed Issoof's party put to flight, and seized most of the cattle. The next day the whole body of French cavalry, who were 300, and Rajahsaheb's who were 800, encamped to the north of the garden, and on the 29th one of their parties routed one of Abdulwahab's, and took ten prisoners. The attention to this army, since their arrival in the neighbourhood, diminished the activity of the enemy's operations against the fort, by the detachments they were obliged to send and recal on different reports and alarms. Their approach, just as the enemy's works were advanced so near the defences increased the alacrity of the garrison.
On the 30th, at 11 in the forenoon, a sail was descried to the southward; when nearer, her colours were discerned to be English, and her form that of one of the Company's ships. All the French vessels, which were five, flung out English colours likewise; and the two ships, the Harlem and Bristol, prepared to get under weigh. A catamaran was immediately dispatched from the fort, warning the stranger to beware of them; in the evening Mr. Dalrymple was sent in a boat, with farther instructions to the captain. The catamaran got on board before the ship came to an anchor, which was not until nine at night; and soon after the Bristol came up, received and returned a broadside, and fell to leeward. The ship was the Shaftsbury East Indiaman, commanded by captain Nathaniel Ingliss, and one of those which were bringing Draper's regimeut from Bombay: but, sailing much worse than the others, they made her the hospital ship, and left her off the south of Ceylon on the 7th of the month, after, which, a luckier vein of wind and current brought her to her port before them. The sick, who were ​36 men of the regiment, only added to the distress of the garrison; but she had on board 37 chests of silver, and many military stores, amongst them, hand-grenades, and bombs of the largest sizes, of which the garrison were much in need, having nearly expended their stock of these articles. The communication of letters was easy and expeditious, after the ship came to an anchor; and, by the governor's order, she threw out at day break the ensigns of a man of war, and received, as if such, a salute of 13 guns from the fort. At the same time the enemy on shore began to fire upon her with one gun from their neglected battery at the second crochet, and two from the breast-work to the south, near the bar; all the three were twenty-four pounders; and sometimes sent red-hot balls. At three in the afternoon, the Bristol, which had fallen far to leeward, worked up again into the road: whilst drawing nigh, boats with soldiers went off to her from the black town. The Harlem, which had likewise been manned from the shore, bore down at the same time, and the Shaftsbury had got under weigh to change her station, but being intercepted by the Bristol, sustained the engagement under sail for two hours, and then anchored, where directed, as near as the soundings would admit, opposite to the south-east bastion. The other ships anchored likewise, but far out in the offing, and nevertheless continued firing until night. The rigging of the Shaftsbury was much damaged by the fire of the ships, and she received several shot through her hull from the shore: but no one was wounded, except Lieutenant Browne of the regiment, who lost his right arm. Before 10, the massoolas of the garrison landed the sick and the treasure; and it being suspected that the enemy's ships might attempt to board the Shaftsbury with their boats, the governor sent optional orders to Captain Ingliss, either to escape out of the road, maintain his station, or run the ship ashore. The confidence was well placed, and Ingliss determined on the choice of danger. The next day, which was the first of February, she stood the same fire from the shore, some from the Harlem, but none from the Bristol, for this ship had sailed away in the night to Pondicherry; and on the second, none from the Harlem, which anchored far out in the offing; but the fire upon her from the shore still continued. ​The preparations of the enemy on shore against the Shaftsbury, slackened their fire against the fort on the 30th, the day she was discerned. The three embrasures on the left of Lally's battery, which bore upon the right face in the north ravelin, continued; the two next to them, which were the left of the four that had hitherto been employed against the north-east bastion, likewise remained free; but the interposition of their own work on the crest of the glacis precluded the use of the two other embrasures against this bastion, as well as of the four which had battered in breach the salient angle of the demi bastion: but they did not think it worth their while to remove the guns of these embrasures into those on the right, in order to batter towards the shoulder angle, that next the flank of this bastion, because they intended, as usual, to make the breach at the salient angle, in which their fire had already almost ruined the parapet. The fire of the burying-ground battery, with four guns, continued on the left face of the north ravelin, and the flank of the demi bastion, and the four guns in the hospital-battery enfiladed the whole of the north front. The outward gun in Lally's battery which remained free against the north-east bastion, they turned against the shoulder merlon on the left of the fascine battery, raised by the garrison on the edge of the surf, of which all the four guns bore on this and the three next embrasures of Lally's, to the left. Their mortars in this, the burying-ground, and the battery between them, likewise continued as before. Such was their fire at the close of this day; and in these 24 hours one 18 pounder was dismounted by the hospital-battery on Pigot's bastion, 1 European, with 3 Sepoys were killed, and 9 Europeans, with 2 Sepoys, wounded.
The enemy's mortars continued through the ensuing night, and mostly against the defences. They worked hard under ground from the palmyra stockade; but, as before, without being discovered; and the earth they threw up on the crest of the glacis likewise concealed their intentions there, although the garrison gave frequent alerts, and threw grenades every half hour, hoping the occasion of a successful sally to explore their work; but the enemy here took ​no alarm. It was supposed they were carrying on a covered sap towards the blind before the north-east bastion, which threatened the most dangerous mine they could spring; and to counteract their intention by meeting their work, the garrison opened a sap from the left of the ditch, and directed it across and under the ground immediately in front of the blind. The mining gallery towards their battery on the crest of the glacis was likewise pushed on with much diligence. The ensuing morning, the enemy at sun-rise opened four embrasures in this battery, which extended to the right from the summit of the salient angle: one of them pointed to the N. E. bastion, and all the four bore on the salient angle of the demi; but they had raised the embrasures so high, that none of their shot could strike the parapet, but all flew over the fort; so that after five or six rounds they ceased firing, and closed the embrasures in order to alter the level. Besides the guns which they opened and kept up against the Shaftsbury, their other batteries against the fort continued through the day: the hospital and burying-ground, with all their guns, but Lally's only with five, three of which were those against the north ravelin, and the other two, which were the next to them, fired mostly against the fascine battery, where they disabled two twelve pounders; a twenty-four pounder was likewise dismounted on the royal bastion: the casualties to the troops were 4 Europeans killed, and 9, with 3 Sepoys wounded. During the night, the garrison, besides the repair of the works, continued their gallery towards the salient angle, and the covered sap before the blind. The enemy continued their sap likewise still undiscovered, and worked in altering their breaching battery; but when they opened it again the next morning with five guns, the shot as before flew over, and they were again obliged to close the embrasures.
This day was the first of February: the fire of the two guns from the bar to the S. and the other to the N. at the second crochet, continued a crossing fire against the Shaftsbury with much aim, and sometimes with red-hot shot, of which several went through the hull. The Harlem likewise fired and helped to ruin her rigging. The fort fired upon the Harlem and on the enemy's southern guns ​and in the evening a twenty-four pounder, which bore on them from the St. Thomé or south-east bastion, burst, whilst Mr. Pigot the governor was there; he and two other men were slightly wounded, but four more died of their hurts. The rest of the fire on both sides continued as the day before, excepting that the enemy's mortars were not so frequent. The Cuddalore, a schooner belonging to the Company, which had lain some days at Paliacate where she had stopped several boats coming from the northward to the enemy's camp, came this day near the road; but seeing the Harlem ready to weigh, stood out again to sea. A twenty-four pounder was disabled in the saluting battery of the fort by its own fire on the Harlem. The casualties, besides those who suffered on the St. Thomé bastion, were 2 Europeans killed, and 4, with 2 Sepoys, wounded. In the night, as well as the day, the pioneers of the garrison continued the two galleries, the one towards the enemy's battery on the salient angle of the glacis, the other under the blind, and the rest of the workmen were chiefly employed in repairing the parapet towards the salient angle of the demi bastion.
In the morning of the 2d, the enemy opened again their embrasures on the crest of the glacis, which they had been repairing all night, but with as little judgment as in the preceding, for their shot still flew too high; and the guns being exposed as before without resistance to the cannon and mortars of the defences, were closed again in an hour after they had opened, and remained silent the rest of the day. The other batteries continued as before. The Harlem had weighed before day-break, and anchored out of gun-shot of the Shaftbury, which now only sustained the fire of the three guns on shore; and theirs less frequent than in the preceding days. At eight in the morning, several parties of horse were discerned from the steeple, advancing in the plain about five miles N. w. of the fort; and soon after appeared the whole army, with Preston and Mahomed Issoof. The enemy's cavalry at Viparee drew out, reinforcements joined them from the black town, and at three in the afternoon firing commenced, which lasted until sun-set. ​The governor had repeatedly recommended to Preston and Mahomed Issoof to march round, and take possession of St. Thomé, and from thence to come by the sea-shore into the fort; or to penetrate wherever else they should see an opening; the intention of this junction was to concert measures for a general attack on the enemy's camp, which could not be explained by letters in cipher and liable to interception. The effort, however, was not to be made by a sally of the united force from the fort; but Preston's army, after being furnished with money and four days provisions, which the garrison could spare, were to march out and encamp abroad again; and at the appointed hour fall on the black town, whilst the garrison at the same time sallied upon the enemy's works. This project was scarcely feasible; for the enemy, knowing the junction in the fort, would be on strict guard in all their posts. Preston, although he disapproved the scheme, was as solicitous as the governor to carry it into execution; but the Polygars had failed to supply the provision of rice they had promised, which obliged the army to send for it as far as Chinglapet and Conjeveram, and detained them three days at Trimliwash until the morning of the 2d; when they marched, intending to pass to St. Thomé between the black town and the Mount, notwithstanding the whole body of the enemy's cavalry were lying in the way at Viparee. Mr. Lally, hearing of their approach, took a detachment of 300 European infantry, 500 Sepoys, and six field-pieces, from the black town, and joined his two bodies of cavalry which were lying at Viparee. He was accompanied by Mr. Bussy, and most of the principal officers, of the army. They marched onward in the plain towards Preston's force, who seeing them coming, halted on the other side of a long morass formed by paddy fields, which intersected the whole extent of the plain from west to east: the cavalry with Preston, to avoid the enemy's cannonade, kept at a distance in the rear; but the infantry drew up under the shelter of banks which continued along the edge of the morass. Mr. Lally made several motions to intice them to cross; but they were not seduced: on which he took post at three o'clock in a spot of ground covered by hedges and trees, ​and opened his cannon across the morass, although at the distance of 1000 yards, which were answered by only six three-pounders. The Sepoys, and even the Europeans on both sides, fired sometimes likewise with their small arms: but the horse were never near each other. From the advantage of situation, notwithstanding the disparity of the cannon, the loss in Preston's army did not much exceed the enemy's, being 15 Sepoys, one European, and five horse killed, and five Sepoys wounded; whereas the enemy left nine Europeans and thirteen horses dead on the plain. At sunset they retreated to Viparee, where Mr. Lally likewise remained with the detachment of infantry; and Preston, for want of provisions, returned to Trimliwash.
In the night the enemy threw fewer shells than usual: from the morning of the 2d to the morning of the 3d, was the first day since the 4th of January, in which no one was killed in the fort; and no Sepoys received any hurt, but five Europeans were wounded. The pioneers of the garrison continued the two mines: they who were at work under the blind discovered no signs of the sap they suspected; but the miners, who were pushing under the covered-way towards the breaching battery, heard, at two in the morning, the sound of men working near them in the enemy's mine on the right under the east face of the glacis, which it was supposed they had relinquished since it failed on the 23d. At daybreak they sprung this mine on the inside of the covered-way, through the counterscarp of the ditch, at the extremity of the cuvette; into which the bulk of the explosion was thrown. Fragments of the brick-work wounded five Europeans and a Sepoy; but the explosion itself blew up none: nevertheless, to destroy many men seemed the only intent; for if it was meant to facilitate the descent into the ditch, their approaches were not sufficiently forward to attempt this operation; since the excavation was entirely commanded by the three innermost guns in the flank of the royal bastion, of which all the seven being covered on the flank by the oreillon, and by traverses in the rear, had received no hurt from the ​enemy's cannon, and none of their mortars had chanced to light amongst them; so that all remained in perfect condition, and the enemy, before they sprung the mine, should have raised a battery in the same direction, on the crest of the glacis, to take off these defences. Immediately after the explosion, they began to fire from two embrasures of their breaching battery in the salient angle, which the fire of the fort, as before, soon obliged them to close; their other batteries likewise slackened, and their mortars still more. Their workmen were chiefly employed during the night, in lowering the embrasures of their breaching battery; the garrison, besides the repairs of the demi bastion, against which the greatest part of the enemy's fire had been directed, worked at their two mining galleries. The casualties of the day and night, besides the men wounded by the enemy's mine, were only one Sepoy killed, and one wounded.
At day-light on the 4th, the enemy again opened their breaching battery on the crest of the glacis, and for the first time fired from all the six embrasures, which, although something lowered, still remained too high to strike below the parapet of the bastions; and the endeavour necessary to reduce them even to this level retarded the repetitions of their fire. The two embrasures in the left of the battery bore on the north-east, the other four on the demi bastion. The N. E. returned with three guns, but the demi bastion with none; for the embrasures were closed, in order to let the workmen thicken the parapet within; and their fire was much better supplied by the four innermost guns in the flank of the royal bastion, upon which not a gun in the breaching battery against which they fired, nor from any other, could bear; and the gunners, sensible of their security, fired with deliberate aim, whilst the three guns on the N. E. bastion continued hotly on their opposites, and both together obliged the enemy in less than an hour to withdraw their guns, and close the embrasures: nor did they attempt to open them again during the rest of the day. At seven the gallery carrying on towards this battery having been pushed to the banquet of the covered-way fell in at the ​end there, and the light came in; but the miners stopped the hole so soon, that the enemy did not discover the mischance. The gallery was then filled five or six feet back, and from hence a return made to the right, from which it was again continued straight forward under the glacis. In the night, the enemy had withdrawn the two twenty-four pounders from the bar, in order to replace others which had been disabled in the north front of the attack; they however substituted a six-pounder to check any sally from the fort. The cessation of this fire to the south released the Shaftsbury from the greatest molestation she had endured, by which several of her men had been killed and wounded, her hull shot through in many places, and all her masts and rigging ruined. In the morning before day-light, she had moved from her station under the guns of the s. E. or St. Thomé bastion, and anchored about a mile in the offing, opposite to the sea-gate. The French ships continued at their anchors out of gun-shot; so that all the annoyance which she received through the day was a shot now and then from the single gun at the second crochet. Against the fort, the four guns at the burying-ground continued with vivacity, but the two enfilading in the Lorrain, and the four crochet on the hospital-battery with less frequency: all the enemy's first-rate bombs were expended, and most of the next sizes, so that they only fired a few shells of eight and ten inches from the second crochet. In the evening, a sloop from Pondicherry anchored at St. Thomé with a supply of stores. During the night, the enemy fired a great deal of musketry upon the covered-way, and the garrison, besides the repairs, continued the two mines. The casualties of the night and day were one European and three Sepoys killed, and four with two wounded, and a twenty-four pounder was disabled on the demi bastion.
Early in the morning of the 5th, the Harlem, the Diligent, and three smaller vessels, got under sail from their station before the black town, where they left only one, a small sloop, and standing to the southward were out of sight before the evening. The cause of their sudden departure, was a report from Pondicherry, that several ships of force had been seen off Negapatam. At sunrise ​the enemy again opened their breaching battery, but before they had fired three rounds were obliged to close it again by the same fire as the day before. At nine, a red flag seen on the Mount signified that Preston's and Mahomed Issoof's army were arrived there from Trimliwash; they had before represented the necessity of remaining at a distance until supplied with ammunition and stores from Chinglapet, provisions from the country, and money from Madrass. Mr. Pigot ordered them at all events to attempt the effort so often recommended of marching into the fort; but, lest it should fail, dispatched in the evening ten of the troop of European horse, with Captain Vasserot, each carrying a thousand pagodas, who crossed the Island, forced through the enemy's guard at Chindadrapettah, and arrived at the Mount at ten at night, of which they immediately gave notice to the garrison by four rockets and a large fire. The fire of the enemy's batteries was slacker than usual in the day, their shells very few, and little musketry in the night. Nevertheless the casualties until the morning of the 6th, were another twenty-four pounder disabled on the demi bastion, one European and three Sepoys killed, and four Europeans wounded.
The enemy's breaching battery remained silent during the 6th; nor had they repaired the damages it had sustained; but in Lally's of which the fire had ceased since the 30th of the last month, six embrasures appeared to have been restored to good condition for service: but so many of the enemy's guns had been ruined, that they were obliged to withdraw the four from the recrochet battery at the hospital, to furnish the embrasures at Lally's which, however, they did not open until the next day; so that their fire this day was from fewer guns than in any since they began the siege, consisting only of the four guns at the burying-ground, and two in the Lorrain battery; but they added two ten-inch mortars to the two already established at the second crochet. All their cavalry, European, as well as the black, were observed filing off to the Choultry Plain; and Sepoys, with guns and tumbrils, were seen marching that way from the black town. The night passed without skirmish, for the enemy were not heard at work on the crest of the glacis; but their mortars ​continued. In the day and night two Europeans were killed, and two wounded, but none of the Sepoys were hurt.
In the morning of the 7th the enemy began to fire, as was expected, from Lally's battery, but only from four of the embrasures and with a mortar on the right, all bearing upon the demi and north-east bastions, which together returned six guns: the other batteries continued as the day before, and the mortars in the night; during which no alarms were given either by the enemy or the garrison: two guns were disabled on the north-east bastion; two Europeans were killed, and five, and two Sepoys, wounded.
Notwithstanding the in efficacy of the breaching battery, the rest of the enemy's fire had by this time rent the salient angle of the demi bastion from top to bottom; and Mr. Lally, who viewed every thing with enthusiasm, ordered the principal engineers and artillery officers to give their opinion on the feasibility of storming this breach, and declared his own of success; but the officers considered the question with more deliberation. They agreed that the descent into the covered way from the breaching battery on one side, and the gabions on the other, of the salient angle of the glacis, was easy, and that the descent into the ditch and passage across it had been rendered very practicable by the mine they had sprung in the covered way from the eastern side of the glacis, of which the explosion had filled up a sufficient space at the end of the cuvette or trench of water dug along the middle of the ditch; but a rank of strong palisadoes ranged along the other side of the cuvette, and having hitherto received no damage must be torn down by hand, before the troops could gain the foot of the breach; who, during the descent into the ditch, would be exposed, without the cover of a single gabion on the flank, to the fire of the north-east bastion and of musketry from the blind before it; to six guns in the curving flank of the royal bastion, and abundance of small arms from the caponiere which led across the ditch to the north ravelin; and the havoc of these two fires would continue without the least resistance or interruption upon the troops whilst assaulting the breach itself. From these circumstances the officers declared the breach, although ​practicable, inaccessible; but added, what they were not asked, that from a comparison of the forces, the prosecution of works to quell the fire of the place would only sacrifice the lives of many men without the least probability of success.
The only variation in the attack during the 8th, was the addition of one gun on Lally's, which now fired with five. The force with which the enemy intended to oppose the army at the Mount had collected in a separate camp on the Choultry Plain, and in their rear at Egmore were six field-pieces with four tumbrils. In the afternoon the Bristol anchored off St. Thomé returning with stores from Pondicherry; and, as it was apprehended that she might have brought a supply of large shells, the governor proposed that the Shaftsbury, reinforced with 40 soldiers from the shore, should attack her. Captain Ingliss concurred in this intention with alacrity; but his masts were so much damaged, that it required the repair of two days before he could set a sail. No annoyance, excepting mortars, passed between the besiegers and the fort during the night. Before the morning, the gallery in front of the blind before the north-east bastion had been carried far enough toward the sea to secure this work from any mines of the enemy, and was continued in a direction forward towards the palmyra palisade, of which the enemy were in possession, in order to cross any other they might be attempting against the east face of the covered way. Two explosions of powder had been occasioned in the enemy's works by the fall of shells during the night. In these 24 hours were one European and one Sepoy killed, and two Europeans and one Sepoy wounded; but no gun was dismounted.
In the three last days, information had been received from Captain Preston, that Major Calliaud was approaching with a reinforcement from the south; and these were the first advices concerning him, which had reached either Preston or the garrison since his departure to Tanjore; for every letter which he had written passing through the enemy's country, had been either intercepted by them, or carried far away by the messengers. A variety of untoward incidents had protracted the execution of his commission. He embarked at nine in ​the morning on the 1st of December in a common massoolah, which had only six rowers and the steersman; he was accompanied by Mr. Boswell the surgeon, as his interpreter, and one servant. In few hours after they were at sea, a hard gale of wind arose, in which they could not show the sail, and scarcely use the oars; nevertheless the drift of the wind and current carried the boat by 9 o'clock the second night far as Devi Cotah, which is by the sea one hundred and thirty miles from Madrass, when the rowers were so much exhausted, that no entreaties could prevent them from putting ashore; and they grounded on the strand within half a mile of the fort of Devi Cotah, in which was an officer and some French Sepoys, from whose notice they were preserved by the continuance of the storm, and before day-break put to sea again; but the boatmen would not venture over the larger and outer surf, and continued driving in the hollow sea between the two, until noon, when they landed at Tranquebar. The rains had overflowed the rivers, which remained impassable until the 12th. On the 14th Calliaud arrived at Aimapettah 15 miles from Tanjore, where he was again detained three days by the bad weather. On the 17th he reached the city.
The king of Tanjore, when more closely pressed by Captain Joseph Smith to furnish the 1000 horse requested of him by the Presidency in December, pleaded the ravages which his country had lately suffered from the French army, and demanded 200,000 rupees before-hand; at length he more plainly said, that he thought the English did nob care what befel the territory of their allies, provided they could defend their own: but as he could not allege this indifference to himself when attacked by the French, he cited the unconcern with which they had suffered the French to take every fort belonging to the Nabob, and even his capital of Arcot, without making any efforts to protect them; although he knew that the Presidency had not the means, and with the Nabob's were losing their own revenues.
Major Calliaud found the king in the same temper, so prepossessed of the decline of the English fortune, that he neglected the ​usual attentions to himself, as their representative, and instead of a house, allotted his habitation in a choultry. In their conference, the king said he had sufficiently exposed himself to the resentment of the French, if Madrass should fall, by the assistance he had already sent with Mahomed Issoof, which were 300 horse; but not paid by himself: nevertheless he was willing to lend 400 more, provided Calliaud would discharge their arrears: Calliaud demanded Colonel Kennedy and the Jesuit Estevan, the French hostages whom the king had detained; but the king refused, and let them depart on the 19th, as it were, in his sight. Nevertheless, the horse were so necessary that Calliaud determined not to take offence whilst there remained any probability of getting them, and applied for money to the house of Buccangee, which was by far the most considerable bank in the Carnatic, and had hitherto transacted the greatest part of the Company's exchange throughout the province: but their agents in Tanjore refused to supply any money for bills on Madrass. The king knowing this promised the horse should be ready in four days, if the money was paid. Calliaud then applied to the Dutch government of Negapatam, who proffered a loan, but proposed to furnish it in coins, and at rates, which would have produced a loss of 25 per cent. These disappointments obliged him to seek the money at Tritchinopoly, where he arrived on the 24th, and obtained the promise of a supply from another shop of Buccangee's house established there: he returned on the 27th to Tanjore, where intelligence had been received the day before, that the Nabob with his family, who had left Madrass on the 20th, were arrived at Negapatam, and that his wife, in this short but tempestuous passage, had been brought to bed at sea. At the same time Seid Muctoon the Nabob's agent at Tanjore informed the king, that the Nabob intended to come into the city in his way to Tritchinopoly, and expected to be met, as usual, upon the road; but the embarkation, the season, and above all, the travail of the lady, had convinced the king, contrary to the real motives, that nothing but the despair of Madrass could have induced the English government to expose the prince of their alliance to such risks and distresses; ​and either from the malignant pleasure of insulting his superior in distress, or from his dread of the French, if they should prove successful, or both, he refused either to admit the Nabob into the city, or to pay him a visit without the walls: nor heeded the representations of Calliaud endeavouring to correct his contumacy. The news likewise frightened the shroff at Tritchinopoly so much, that he retracted his promise, and refused to supply money upon any terms. However, 50 of the horse were assembled at Condore on the bank of the Coleroon, 10 miles north of the city, and Calliaud, in order to encourage the rest to follow, went thither likewise. The next day, which was the 28th, a detachment of 500 Sepoys, which he had ordered from Tritchinopoly to escort the Nabob, passed by in their way to Negapatam; and on the 1st of January he received from Mr. Norris, the member of the council who had accompanied the Nabob from Madrass, 10 of 20,000 pagodas which had been sent by the Presidency to defray the expences of the garrison of Tritchinopoly: but although this supply obviated the pretexts of delay, the king sent out no more horse. On the 5th, major Calliaud visited the Nabob at Aimapettah, and accompanied him to Pondi, a village 7 miles from Tanjore, where the illness of the Nabob's wife detained them the two succeeding days, during which major Calliaud went again to the city, when his exhortations, seconded by the appearance of the escort, prevailed; and the king visited the Nabob on the 8th with the usual ceremonies in a choultry on the road. Major Calliaud, to dignify the Nabob's appearance in his own territory, and at his earnest request, judiciously put himself at the head of the escort, and marched with him to Tritchinopoly: they arrived there on the 10th, but Calliaud returned the next day to Condore; where no more horse had hitherto joined the first party; his letters and messages, for he resolved not to visit the king again, availing as little as before, he returned to Tritchinopoly on the 17th, in hopes of levying a body of horse in the adjacent country; and on his departure expressed, intending it should be conveyed, the utmost indignation at the king's evasions. He however left agents at Condore to ​improve any advantageous change which might happen in his disposition, and the king, alarmed by the resentment of his departure, sent out the remainder of the horse with scribes to clear their accounts; on which Calliaud returned on the 21st to Condore, and, advancing them fifteen days pay, they crossed the Coleroon the next day, and on the 23d moved to Trimalvedy, a fort belonging to the Arielore Polygar, on the bank of the river, about five miles above Condore. Here he proposed that they Should proceed 10 miles farther that day; but they halted, parlying for more pay, until the 25th, when they marched 20 miles to Mongalpaddy, a village still in the districts of Arielore; where they were joined by three companies of Sepoys from Tritchinopoly. The whole arrived and halted the next day at Volcondah, and on the 25th reached Thiagar: here the horse refused again to proceed until they received their arrears, which the king had promised, and failed to send. They were however satisfied with another advance of 15 days, but requested another day's halt in expectation of some of their necessaries which were not yet come up from Tanjore. On the 31st they marched from Thiagar to Tricolore, which is 15 miles onwards. The killidar Kistnarow, who had before taken the field with Mahomed Issoof, promised to follow with all his force from Thiagar: but none appeared. On the 1st of February, Calliaud, with his own troops, reached Trivanalore, and the next day Villaporam. The partizan Lambert, with 500 Sepoys, had advanced to this place to oppose their progress; but, receiving certain intelligence of their force, went off the same day to Gingee. The want of provisions detained Calliaud's party at Villaporum until the 4th; and on the 7th, at noon, they arrived at Chinglapet, both foot and horse so much fatigued, for the march was seventy-five miles in three days, that they could proceed no farther; on which Calliaud left them there to refresh, and went away with his own attendants to the Mount, where he arrived at seven that night; and as the elder officer took the command of all the forces there, Preston's, Mahomed Issoof's, and Abdulwahab's. ​The Mount is a craggy rock, of which the base is oblong from east to west, and a mile round. It has two eminences, of which that to the eastward is much the highest, being 150 feet, and has at the top a small level plot, in which stands a church, the substitute of a much more ancient structure, dedicated, by the ancient Christians of Coromandel and Malabar, to a St. Thomas, whom the present erroneously suppose to be the apostle. A flight of broad steps leading to the church winds on the eastern side, just where the hill itself begins to round to the north. A village of country-houses, built by the English, extends from the foot of the Mount about 600 yards to the east, and consists of two rows of houses situated in gardens separated by a lane. The row which faces the south fronts a pleasant plain, and the walls of its enclosures as well on this side as on the other, where they skirt the lane, are on a straight line. The enclosure which terminated the front row, to the east, was the garden-house of Colonel Lawrence; it occupied 100 yards to the plain, and, as all the others of this row, the same extent backward to the lane; the gardens on the other side of the lane were not all enclosed with walls, but some with banks and hedges; all, however, capable of some defence. The last enclosure in this row, which from its owner was called Carvalho's garden, projected 50 yards farther out to the east than Lawrence's, the last in the front row, of which in consequence it flanked the eastern side: and about 200 yards out on the plain to the south, directly opposite to Carvalho's stood the ruins of five or six mud houses, with several trees surrounding a small brick building, which had once contained a swamy, or idol. This station flanked the ground before the front row of enclosures. The lane that separated the two rows continued nearly in a straight line from the east, and terminated at the bottom of the steps leading to the summit of the Mount. On the right hand of the steps was a craggy path from the plain on the south, and on the left hand an outlet leading round the north side of the Mount: contiguous to the path on the right, and within pistol-shot of the steps, was a house which looked upon the outlet to the north; and the last house on the other side at this end of the lane commanded ​obliquely the opening of the path from the south: a spacious gateway at the bottom of the steps fronted the lane between.
The black troops, exclusive of those which Major Calliaud had left at Chinglapet, were 2200 horse, and 2500 Sepoys; but the Europeans were only 103, 12 of whom were artillery-men, and 10 with Vasserot, troopers; the other 80 were musketry, including officers; the artillery were six three-pounders. Of the Sepoys, those from the garrison of Chinglapet, and 700 of Mahomed Issoofs might be relied on; but little dependant could be placed on the rest, and less on the cavalry. In this conviction, Calliaud determined to risk little in the plain, but to defend the whole village of the Mount, which afforded excellent stations. The plain to the north, behind the second row of enclosures, required few precautions, because the ground, being laid out in rice fields, precluded the approach of cannon, and the use of cavalry. But, if the enemy should get possession of Carvalho's garden, they might soon penetrate into all the other enclosures of the second row along the lane when the first row, attacked from this in the rear, and in front by another division of the enemy from the plain on the south, could not be long maintained. Calliaud therefore considered Carvalho's garden as the decisive post, and stationed in it 60 of the European musketry with four of the field-pieces. The two other field-pieces, with the 20 other European firelocks, and 300 Sepoys, were posted at the swamyhouse; the inlets of this post were barricaded, and the walls of the mud houses were lowered to parapets for the musketry, and where necessary still lower for the field-pieces, but time and means were wanting to enclose them either with a ditch or palisades. Seventeen hundred Sepoys were distributed in the gardens of the front row facing the south, but the greatest part in Lawrence's to the east, and a communication was prepared between all these enclosures by openings in the walls of separation. The remaining 500 Sepoys were stationed to defend the inlets to the upper end of the lane, at the foot of the Mount; some in the two houses there, others on the steps, others at the gate, and others in different parts of the rock itself. The black cavalry had encamped along the north ​side of the Mount, and were ordered to hold themselves in readiness to act as occasion should require.
With the dawn of the next day, which was the 9th, the enemy were discerned approaching in two large bodies. The one consisting of 1200 Sepoys and 500 black horse, advanced from the Marmelong, or St. Thomé river, towards the east end of the village, but having no field-pieces, regulated their approach by that of the other body, which, having taken a circuit to the left, were perceived at two miles distance on the plain to the south. This body consisted of 300, being the whole of the French European cavalry, and 600 European infantry: the cavalry was in the centre in two ranks, the troopers on the right, the dragoons next, the hussars on the left. The infantry were equally divided on each side of the cavalry, and both divisions had two field-pieces on each of their flanks, eight in all, of which two were twelve, two nine, and the other four six-pounders. The whole was commanded by a relation of Mr. Lally's, of the same name, and with the rank of colonel. The black horse with Calliaud formed on his summons in front of the garden walls; they were crowded, according to their custom, ten or twelve ranks in depth. Abdulwahab presented himself with seeming resolution at their head, and Calliaud, with the 10 troopers and Vasserot, rode on their left. The French cavalry were advancing before their infantry; and it was the intention of Calliaud, that his own should wait until they came in a line with the flank fire of the field-pieces at the swamy-house: but when they were within 1000 yards, where the ground began to take an ascent towards the garden walls, although scarcely perceptible in a less space, the whole body of the black cavalry with Calliaud set off scampering, shouting, and flourishing their sabres. The French cavalry came on to meet them at a round trot; but halting suddenly, the first rank discharged their carbines, by which four or five horses, and as many men, were brought to the ground, on which the whole, excepting Calliaud and the 10 troopers, went off at once, some escaping along the side of the Mount to their right, but others turning, pressed into the path in their rear, which led into the head of the lane at the foot of the steps, and pushed across ​it by the other outlet, to the plain on the north of the Mount. The French cavalry followed them until they themselves came within reach of the flank fire of the field-pieces at the swamy-house, which falling amongst the troopers and dragoons on the right, obliged them to check and turn back; but the hussars on the left, not feeling so much of this annoyance, pushed on, and pursued the fugitives through the opening into the upper end of the lane, where they immediately fell under the fire of the 500 Sepoys pasted in the different stations in that part of the Mount and in the two houses, which drove them with as much precipitation as those they were pursuing, through the outlet to the north, from whence they galloped round the Mount, and rejoined the cavalry from which they had separated, in the plain to the south. Calliaud, with the troopers, retreated to the enclosure next Lawrence's garden, and his horse, which had received a ball in the breast, fell under him at the gate. As soon as the hussars returned, the whole of the French line advanced again in the same order as before, and halted at the distance of 600 yards; the division of infantry on the right, opposite to the swamy-house; the other on the left, over against the last enclosures at the foot of the Mount. From these situations the infantry of both divisions sent forward their field-pieces 200 yards nearer, which began a brisk and indiscriminate cannonade against the garden walls, and the post at the swamy-house, which was answered with effect only by the two field-pieces at this post; for the fire of the Sepoys, even here as well as in the gardens, was thrown away, and nevertheless could not be restrained. Meanwhile the body of enemy's troops to the east halted behind a ridge, which extended at the distance of 400 yards, opposite to Carvalho's garden, against which their Sepoys kept up a constant and useless fire of musketry, which nevertheless was often answered from the four field-pieces in the garden.
Colonel Lally seeing no effect from his field-pieces against the garden walls to the south, and the danger of storming them, before the advanced post at the swamy-house was carried, detached at nine o'clock 100 Europeans from the division of infantry on the right, to attack it at the push of bayonet; but the fire ​of the two field-pieces, and the musketry there, met them so hotly, that they broke within 30 yards of the post, and retreated with precipitation to their division, which on this repulse recurred again to their field-pieces. Calliaud, nevertheless, was convinced that the post would be soon attacked again, and could not be maintained throughout the day, and therefore drew off one of the field-pieces. At ten the enemy sent a stronger detachment to make another attack, who were beat off as the first; and half an hour after another attack was made by 200 of the division, who were likewise repulsed; but these successes had so much elated the defenders, that all the Sepoys, with most of the Europeans, accompanied by ensign Airey himself, rushed out to pursue the detachment; who, as if by design, retreated fast, and led them 300 yards into the plain; two troops of horse, who had been patrolling in the rear of the infantry, chanced at this moment to be just behind the remaining Europeans of the division to the right; and seeing the advantage, set off at full gallop and fell sword in hand upon the pursuers, before they had time to form in proper order to resist the shock. All were in an instant scattered, and many were cut down before they reached the swamy-house; when, although safe, they did not think themselves so, but leaving the field-piece, ran out on the other side to gain the gate of Lawrence's garden, which stood open before them; but before they got there, the troopers galloping round the east side of the post, fell upon them again, up to the very gate, where their career was checked by a strong fire of the Sepoys, whom Mahomed Issoof, seeing the disaster, had ranged along the walls. The surprize, for several fell, deprived the cavalry likewise of the recollection to return, and take shelter behind the cover at the swamy-house; but they galloped across the angle of Lawrence's towards the angle of Carvalho's garden, where Calliaud seeing them coming, met them with the fire of the 4 field-pieces in this post: but the gunners having hitherto only used ball, forgot to change their charge for grape shot, which greatly diminished the execution; for the cavalry passed within 30 yards of the angle, and continued galloping onward to the north-east, until out of reach, when they turned in the rear of their Sepoys behind ​the ridge. However some of them fell; but all the loss they had suffered was much less than the havock they had made; for they had killed or cut down more than a hundred, but mostly Sepoys.
The right division of the enemy's infantry with their field-pieces immediately took possession of the deserted post; their left likewise advanced something nearer the inclosures on their side, and both began a hot cannonade against the garden walls, which being slight, but of brick, were easily perforated. The Sepoys within took shelter behind the houses, ready to man the walls on a closer attack; but ever and anon, one or other of those, obliged to move to and fro, was killed; and these casualties, although few, dispirited many, who took every opportunity to quit their stations, and steal into the back inclosures, from whence they escaped round the Mount, and hastened far from the field. Of the black cavalry not more than a hundred had returned since the rout in the morning, and kept both the rows of enclosures between themselves and the enemy's shot. At noon a party was discerned advancing from the St. Thomé river, with a piece of cannon drawn by many oxen. It was a heavy iron eighteen-pounder. The field-pieces at Carvalho's fired upon them at random shot, which frightened the cattle, and obliged the drivers several times to unyoke the restive, and at last to throw them all off, when the Lascars alone dragged the gun; but when arrived at the ridge, where the Sepoys had taken post, it could not be made use of behind it; and whilst they were drawing it further forward into the plain, several shot which took place amongst them interrupted their attempt. At length it was brought to a proper station, and at 2 o'clock began to fire at point blank; it was opposed as before by the 4 three-pounders, which could not with the same certainty reach so far, and several of the men serving them were killed by the shot, and wounded by fragments of the house. Mean while the enemy to the south, besides their cannonade, which continued hotter than in the forenoon, advanced at different intervals several parties, as well from the division on the left, as the swamy-house, with the appearance of assault, but only to draw the unnecessary fire of the Sepoys which ​always succeeded; and it became fortunate that so many had quitted, for even the best who remained could not be restrained from firing on every motion, although in vain. But by 5 o'clock in the afternoon, the perseverence of the enemy's cannonade obliged them likewise to diminish it, for fear of ruining their own guns, and at sunset it ceased totally, and they were seen yoking, and soon after drew off all their artillery, moving to the eastward: the eighteen-pounder ceased and drew off at the same time. The sight was more joyful than they suspected to the troops in the village, for Calliaud had just before received information, that the musket ammunition was expended to six cartridges a man, and only three balls, besides the grapeshot, left for each of the field-pieces; so that no retreat could have been made, if pressed by the enemy in the open plain. Spies followed them until they had crossed the river of St. Thomé, and began to take up their quarters in the village of Marmelong; and immediately on the return of the spies at eight at night, Calliaud marched away with all that remained of his force, in silence, for fear of the enemy's cavalry, and left fires to deceive them. Before the morning, they arrived at Vendaloor. The fugitive cavalry of the morning had run away with so much hurry, that they reached Chinglapet before noon. To rejoin them, as well as to get a supply of ammunition, Calliaud continued his march the next day, and arrived there in the evening, where all the Sepoys, who had not entirely deserted, were likewise assembled. Of the Europeans, seven were killed, and 13 wounded. It was not so easy to ascertain the loss sustained by the Sepoys; but by the reports of those who held out through the action, it was computed that fifty were killed on the spot, and about 150 were brought away wounded. The loss of the enemy was not known, but supposed to be 50 Europeans, and most in proportion of the cavalry. The firing of the action was heard in the fort, and several parties at different times of the day were seen going towards the Mount, and not a few palankins and doolies returning from it with the wounded.
Notwithstanding the draughts which had been made for this attack, the enemy's fire on the fort continued with more vivacity than might have been expected, although not so frequent as the day before, ​but both their shot and shells were directed against the buildings. The Shaftesbury was not ready to weigh and bear down upon the Bristol, at anchor in the road of St. Thomé, before the night closed, and in this interval the Bristol employed all the boats which could be assembled in unloading her stores, and for more dispatch put a part of them on board of the sloop which was in the road when she arrived, and into the other from the black town, which had passed and anchored near her; nevertheless she had not discharged half her cargo before night, and for fear of the Shaftesbury set sail, and was out of reach before morning. It being supposed that the service at the Mount had drained the enemy's posts to the southward of the fort, two companies of Sepoys were detached-in the afternoon, who proceeded as far as the governor's garden, from whence they brought off some ammunition, and in their return set fire to the gabions of the battery near the bar, meeting no opposition. The enemy's mortars continued sparingly through the night, but as in the day against the houses. Not a man or a gun was hurt in the fort during these 24 hours; but the numbers of the garrison were by this time so much impaired by casualties and sickness, that the grenadier company, which had hitherto been kept in reserve, were obliged to furnish a proportion to the guards of the different posts.
The next day, which was the 10th, the enemy fired with four guns and one mortar from Lally's, three guns from the burying-ground, two from the Lorrain battery, and with two mortars at the second crochet: the guns at Lally's fired smartly, but most of the shot from hence, as well as the shells from all the three mortars, were, as the day before, directed against the buildings, which were much rent and shattered. The mortars continued through the night, during which the garrison began another embrasure in the fascine battery on the beach, within the flow of the surf; it was intended to sweep the strand, along which the enemy might approach under cover of the bank of sand which forms the beach and stops the sea that has thrown it up. The gallery or mine at the salient angle was this day completed: it had been pushed 90 feet from the counterscarp of the ditch, which brought it under the enemy's breaching ​battery, when a short return was made on each hand from the end, and in a chamber at the end of each return was laid a box, containing 200 pounds of powder, to which the saucissons were fixed. The gallery before the blind was sufficiently advanced towards the sea-side to cross any approach under ground to the blind, and another branch was opened from this gallery ten feet on the outside of the east face of the covered-way, parallel to which it was intended to prolong the branch to the north, in order to discover and meet the enemy if working under ground in this part. In the morning the Cuddalore sloop belonging to the Company returned into the road, which she had left ten days before, having employed this time in regaining the distance she had sailed in one; orders were immediately sent off to her by a catamaran; in consequence of which she bore down into the road of St. Thomé, and attacked the two small vessels lying there, which had not yet landed all the stores they had received from the Bristol. The vessels, after receiving a few shot, weighed and ran close to the surf, within 100 yards of the shore; the Cuddalore followed them as near as she could, when a party of musketry, with two field-pieces, came to the strand, and began to fire on her; by which the crew, who were all Lascars, were so much frightened, that they could hardly be prevailed on to stand the deck: the master, therefore, bore away, and in the evening anchored again before the fort. The fire of the day and night wounded two Europeans and one Sepoy, and disabled a 24 pounder on the demi bastion.
On the 11th the enemy's fire continued from the same cannon and mortars as the day before, but more briskly. The Cuddalore sloop bore down again in the morning upon the two vessels in the road of St. Thomé, and was again beat off by the same fire from the shore. The outward embrasure of the fascine battery in the surf was completed, and palisadoes staked in front of it: a range of trees were laid before the palisadoes, and others along the shoulder of the battery in the surf itself. The casualties in the day and night were two Europeans and one Sepoy killed, and four Europeans and ​one Sepoy wounded; a twenty-four pounder was disabled on the royal bastion.
The same fire continued on the 12th, but with more effect, disabling six guns. Before this time all the original parapet, of the N. E. bastion had been battered away; and so much of the body of the bastion itself crumbled, that the outside of the gabions and sand-bags, which had been substituted on the rampart, did not extend beyond the ground which had been the line of the inside of the original parape; and in the afternoon of this day a shot from a twenty-four-pounder on Lally's battery came quite through the gabions, and wounded a sentinel in the bastion; four other Europeans and one Sepoy were wounded, and two Europeans were killed, during these 24 hours.
At three in the morning of the 13th, a party from the enemy's trenches, consisting of 50 Coffrees, advanced along the sea-side from the stockade, of which they were in possession, intending to storm and nail up the guns in the fascine battery. They were led by a Serjeant chosen for his bravery, with the promise of a commission if the attempt succeeded. The party was discovered when within 30 yards of the work, on which they halted, probably to form for the push, and in this short interval received two rounds of grape-shot from the embrasure next the breach, the execution of which threw them into such confusion, that they all ran back to the trenches, leaving seven dead, and the Serjeant desperately wounded. Upon this alarm, the drums beat to arms, and all the garrison and inhabitants repaired to their several posts: and a smart fire was kept up from the defences, and returned by the enemy from the trenches, for some time after the party was repulsed. The Serjeant crawled into the covered -way, where he was taken up, told what he knew of the enemy's intentions, and died before day-break. This day the enemy ceased firing from the three guns in the Lorrain battery, by which the number of their cannon was reduced to seven pieces; but the five in Lally's fired very briskly: their three mortars continued as before through the day, but very sparingly during the night, which gave suspicion that they were busy at work in their trenches, and before day-light ​at three o'clock in the morning, it was discovered that they had advanced some gabions on the edge of the surf beyond the Palmyra stockade, which indicated that they either intended to bring cannon against the fascine battery, or to advance by traverses under cover of the beach which was steep, and then attack the covered-way and the fascine battery together: a strong fire was kept up from the fascine battery upon the stockade, and the gabions they had advanced until the morning. Tn these 24 hours no guns were dismounted in the fort, but three Europeans were killed, and four, with one Sepoy, wounded. The mine under the enemy's battery at the salient angle of the covered-way was completely stopt up before noon; and three pioneers, covered at night by ten grenadiers, were continued at the counterscarp in readiness to make the explosion.
It being discovered at day-break of the 14th, that the enemy had renewed their gabions beyond the stockade, a sally was made upon them at sun-rise. A subaltern and 15 men went along the coveredway till they came upon the flank of the stockade, 40 men with two captains advanced directly in front of it along the glacis, followed by 20 pioneers and an engineer without arms. The two parties attacked at the same instant, and their first fire drove the enemy from the stockade, and continued firing forwards from it on all that appeared; at the same time the north ravelin, the royal, the demi, and N. E. bastions plyed the trenches with grape shot, and all together deterred the enemy from venturing out of them, which gave the pioneers leisure to overturn the gabions into the sea, and to spread and level the earth they contained. After which, the whole detachment returned unmolested into the covered-way, having only two men slightly wounded. The enemy's fire continued as the day before, but they threw very few shells in the night, during which they worked hard in replacing the gabions which had been overset in the morning, and endeavoured to complete the traverse from them towards the surf; but the fire of a twelve-pounder from the fascine battery, and the shells from the demi bastion, continually interrupted their work. In the evening the Diligent, and a sloop with stores from Pondicherry, anchored in the road of St. ​Thomé; and on their appearance 15 sailors which had been taken out of the Shaftsbury to serve in the garrison, with 30 more Europeans, were sent on board with orders to Captain Ingliss to bear down, and attack these vessels. The decks of the Shaftsbury being lumbered with goods, she did not get under sail until 11 o'clock at night, and was too soon discovered by the two vessels, which immediately got under way, and before day-break were too far to the southward to be pursued. In these 24 hours two Europeans were killed, and five wounded; out none of the Sepoys were hurt. A twenty-four-pounder, on the demi bastion, was split in the muzzle by one of the enemy's shot. For several days a number of labourers, guarded by a party of soldiers, with an officer, had been discerned from the steeple demolishing the governor's garden-house, and in the afternoon of this day they set fire to the village of Chipauk, which stood at the back of the garden, between the bar of the river and the village of Triplicane.
The next day, which was the 15th, the enemy's fire was very brisk in the morning, from six guns in Lally's, four at the burying-ground, and two in the Lorrain battery; but it decreased in the afternoon, and at five o'clock they only fired from three in Lally's, and two at the burying-ground, and from neither of the two in the Lorrain battery; the fire of their mortars likewise slackened. Several camels and many Coolies were seen passing fron St. Thomé across Egmore plain to the black town, loaded, it was supposed, with ammunition; but a much greater number of Coolies, with all kinds of burthens, passed from thence to the southward, which confirmed the intelligence of a spy, that the enemy were sending away their superfluous stores and the remains of their booty to Pondicherry, and gave credit to the information of the deceased serjeant, that they had determined to raise the siege. They fired very few shells, and continued very quiet in their trenches during the night; but the garrison suspecting that they might be carrying on their gabions by the seaside, kept up a smart fire from the fascine battery upon the head of their sap until two o'clock in the morning, when the moon gave sufficient light to discover that they were doing nothing there; on ​which the firing ceased. At the same time, the enemy's guard in their battery on the the crest of the glacis, which for some days had only been used as a lodgment for musketry, perceived and fired upon a party of Sepoys who were levelling the rubbish at the foot of the demi bastion, which had been beat down by the cannonade of the day. One of the Sepoys was killed, on which the rest ran away, and no other of these troops could be prevailed upon to continue the work, which was however completed by a party of Europeans. A six-pounder in the fascine battery was disabled by one of the enemy's shot. The casualties in the 24 hours, were one Coffree and one Sepoy killed, and one of each, with two Europeans, wounded, and Lieutenant Hopkins lost his right arm by a cannon shot. Two letters were received this day from Major Calliaud, dated the 11th and 13th, advising his intention to make a forced march from Chinglapet, with the troops under his command, in hopes of surprising the fort of Sadrass, of which the French continued in possession; and requesting that money and ammunition might be sent to him there, in consequence of which the Cuddalore sloop was immediately dispatched with 300 three-pound shot, and 20,000 pagodas in money. This sum completed 70,000, which had been sent out of the fort, since invested, for the supply of the army abroad. Much more remained in the Company's treasury, which was indebted for this affluence to the remittances from their acquisitions in Bengal; but, had this source failed, the wealth of individuals collected within the fort would have been much more than sufficient to have answered all the expences incurred for its defence. Very different were the faculties and finances of the enemy. The treasury of the government at Pondicherry was exhausted, and individuals from their distrust and detestation of Mr. Lally would lend none to forward the public cause, although their own; and from violence and mismanagement, the countries which had been reduced, and were the whole extent between Devi Cotah, Arcot, and Madrass, had furnished neither revenues or other means adequate to the wants and consumption of the enemy's army employed in the siege, where the pay of the common soldiers was at this time six weeks in arrear, and ​their other necessities equally ill supplied; who nevertheless, notwithstanding the discontented discourses of their officers, still more dishonourable because they had all got plunder, persevered in their duty with unremitting spirit and alacrity, and Mr. Lally seems to have respected their merit. But the Sepoys had neither the same principles, nor received the same encouragement, for he had always treated them, as all the natives in general, with the utmost contempt and severity, which they now revenged, just as their slender services became most important, by threatening to leave the army, if they were not immediately paid; and spreading their example by their correspondence, 500, who had been posted with a few Europeans in the fort of Tripassore, forced the gates, and marching out with their arms plundered the country, in order, as they said, to collect their arrears. The news was brought to the black town a few hours after the event, on the 15th, and created much anxiety, because all the provisions which the army received, came by Tripassore, and might be easily diverted by these malcontents. Few refrained from declaring that the siege ought to be immediately raised; but Mr. Lally, to maintain the lead of his own opinion, gave out that he would never quit the enterprize, until he had tried the success of a general assault, and talked as if the hour was not far distant.
The next morning, which was the 16th, the enemy's cannon, although not increased in number, fired with more vivacity than for many days before. At 3 in the afternoon intelligence was brought by a catamaran from Paliacat, that a sloop, which had just anchored there, had spoke on the 9th of the month in the lat. of 14°, with the ships from Bombay, from which the Shaftsbury had separated; and that they had been seen on the 12th off Durasapatam, 100 miles to the north of Madrass. At 5 o'clock in the afternoon, the six ships were descried in the N. E. standing towards the road; nevertheless the enemy's fire continued with uncommon vivacity until sunset; and it being concluded, that, if they had ever intended to make a general assault, it would be attempted this night, before the reinforcements could be landed, every soldier and inhabitant in the garrison capable of standing to his arms repaired to their respective posts, ​and as soon as it was dark a hot fire of musketry from the north face of the defences was kept up on the enemy's works, which they returned with equal alacrity. At ten at night the ships, directed by lights held out in the fort, anchored in the road. The firing on shore still continued, and at two in the morning that from the enemy, in their lodgment, on the crest of the glacis, and in their posts and sap opposite to the N. E. bastion and fascine battery, although very strong before, grew stronger than ever, but their shot flew too high: it began to slacken soon after, when the blaze of fires was perceived in their trenches; at three all their annoyances ceased entirely, after which no motions of men were any longer distinguished; but several large piles of wood in the rear of Lally's battery were seen in flames. The casualties since the preceding morning to this time, were three Europeans and one Sepoy wounded, and one Sepoy killed.
At day-break the whole army were discovered in full march from the west side of the black town towards the Choultry Plain, and the greatest part had already crossed the northern river. They had previously undermined the redoubt and powder-mill at Egmore; and at nine o'clock a party left for the purpose made the explosion, which entirely ruined both; these works had cost the Company 30,000 pounds, and could not be restored in a twelvemonth. The enemy were then perceived marching on to the Mount. The hurry of their retreat saved the black town from the resolution which Mr. Lally had taken of reducing it to ashes, if compelled to raise the siege. By noon the troops in the ships were all landed: they were, including officers, 600 men.
Joy and curiosity carried out every one to view and contemplate the works from which they had received so much molestation, for the enemy's fire had continued 42 days. Thirty-three pieces of cannon, 18 or 24 pounders, were found in their posts and works, of which 26 were disabled; but seven were in their carriages, and both in good condition. Some spare carriages were likewise left, and many cannon shot, but no mortars, although several beds; and many military stores, with quantities of powder in casks and flannel bags, ​were found carelessly scattered in the trenches. They evacuated St. Thomé, and whatever guards between this place and the fort were withdrawn at the same time that the army left the black town. The garrison, as soon as certified of their departure, sent out parties to the southward and to Egmore, who collected 19 guns more, mostly iron three-pounders: so that the whole number which the, enemy lost and left behind were 52, pieces of cannon. One hundred and fifty barrels of good powder, and as many casks of damaged ammunition, were found in St. Thomé. But the strongest proof of the hurry and confusion with which they raised the siege, was the neglect of their sick and wounded, leaving 44 Europeans, (all who had not been sent away before) in their hospital in the black town, with a letter from Mr. Lally, recommending them to the care of the English governor: they were received and treated with the same attentions as if they had belonged to the garrison, and most of them afterwards recovered.
The fort fired during the siege 26,554 rounds from their cannon, 7,502 shells from their mortars, and threw 1,990 hand-grenades: the musketry expended 200,000 cartridges. In these services were used 1,768 barrels of gunpowder. Thirty pieces of cannon and five mortars had been dismounted on the works. There remained in the fort, artillery sufficient for another siege, with 30,767 cannon-balls, but only 481 shells, and 668 barrels of gunpowder. As many of the enemy's cannon-balls were gathered in their works, or about the defences of the fort, or found in wells and tanks in the black town, as the garrison had expended. The enemy consumed all the shells of the two first rates in the stores of Pondicherry, and threw of all sorts 8000, of which by far the greatest number were directed against the buildings, all of which lay together in half the area within the walls, in the old town to the eastward: and scarce a house remained that was not opened to the heavens.
Of the European officers, one major, Polier, two captains, six lieutenants, and four ensigns, were killed: one captain, and one lieutenant died of sickness: 14 other officers were wounded, of whom ​some dangerously; and four were taken prisoners: in all 33. Of rank and file in the battalions of European and of the men belonging to the artillery, 198 were killed, 52 died in the hospital, 20 deserted, 122 were taken prisoners, and 167 were wounded; in all 559; but many of the wounded recovered. Of the Lascars, who were natives assisting in the artillery, nine were killed, and 15 wounded. Of the Sepoys, including officers, 105 were killed 217 wounded, and 440 deserted. The loss in Europeans was more than reinstated by the troops brought in the ships.
The governor Mr. Pigot, as soon as the enemy disappeared, relinquished the special authority which had been vested in himself, to the usual administration of the council, of which he was President; and received their thanks for the good effects of his resolution and activity during the siege: he had visited the works every day, encouraging the garrison by his presence, and rewarding those exposed to severer services with money. Provisions of all kinds in abundance, and of the best condition, had been laid up, and as well as all the military stores, were distributed from the different magazines, under the direction of the members of the council, assisted by the inferior servants of the company, whose habits of business established and continually preserved these details free of all let and confusion.
The Presidency, as soon as re-established in its usual forms, acknowledged their sense of the zeal and constancy with which the garrison had sustained every danger and fatigue; and no men ever better deserved this testimony; for scarce a murmur had been uttered: all was emulation. All however acknowledged that the enemy, in proportion to their numbers, compared with the strength of the garrison and works, had pushed the attack with unremitting perseverance and endeavour, and the enemy equally respected the science and steadiness of the defence. Indeed most of the principal officers of the company's troops had been inured to service under their general Colonel Lawrence, whom they still regarded as their preceptor in the siege: they were, Major Polier; the Captains Pascall, ​Charles Campbell, Beaver, Richard Smith, Gurtler, de Beck, Freishman, Vasserot, Black, Hume, Donald Campbell, Greig. Every repair and additional work was executed with regularity and dispatch under the direction of Mr. Call the chief engineer, although this was the first siege, whether offensive or defensive, in which he had served. Captain Hislop, who arrived with a company of the King's artillery-men, at the same time as Adlercron's regiment, was the senior officer in this branch; he had served in Bergenop-zoom. The Company's artillery, which furnished all the cannon and ammunition, was commanded by Captain Robert Barker: even the enemy acknowledged that the promptitude and execution of the fire from the fort was superior to their own: whatsoever guns or mortars were disabled on the defences, were immediately replaced by others prepared in store: Colonel Draper and Major Brereton were of the King's troops: so that no town was ever attacked, which had in proportion to the garrison such a number of excellent and experienced officers. The exertions of Major Calliaud and Captain Preston were equal in the field. Thus every officer of distinction on the establishment of Coromandel was employed in the defence of Madrass, excepting Captain Joseph Smith, to whom was committed the preservation of the next important object, Tritchinopoly, in which the French prisoner's out-numbered, five to one, the invalid Europeans of his garrison.
In the evening, after the enemy retreated, came in Vasserot and the ten troopers with intelligence from Calliaud. This officer marched from Chinglapet on the 13th, but misled by the guides did not arrive at Sadrass, as he intended, the next night, but the morning after; when the Dutch residents, although remaining in the town only on sufferance from the French, who were in possession of their fort, protested against his entrance with hostile appearance on the territory belonging to the Dutch company. At the same time a party of French troops, which were halting there in their way from Pondicherry to join Mr. Lally, went into the fort, and this reinforcement rendered the attempt impracticable excepting by a regular attack, to which the artillery with Calliaud was not ​adequate. He nevertheless remained to invest the fort, and soon after intercepted a letter from Mr. Lally to Mr. Deleyrit, dated the 14th, written in the bitterest terms of reproach and resentment, imputing the failure of his attempt against Madrass, which he then saw inevitable, to the iniquities and treachery of the government of Pondicherry, denouncing, that if this place should escape the vengeance it merited of fire from heaven, nothing could preserve it long from destruction by the fire of the English.
The loss of men sustained by the French army is no where acquired; they were 2700 firelocks when they advanced from Conjeveram; and Mr. Lally, in the intercepted letter, says, that he had still 2000 Europeans; the Sepoys with him were not more than 1000, for several detachments were abroad. The loss of the cannon and ammunition which had been left or thrown away, he imputed to the want of serviceable bullocks, and this deficiency to the rapacity of the contractors leagued with the council of Pondicherry. His army marched away in rags, and without provisions, but, having gunpowder and horse, exacted them, and continued their rout to Arcot. Advices of their retreat had been sent off to Calliaud as soon as they disappeared, who immediately on the information detached Mahomed Issoof with 1200 Sepoys from Sadrass, to reinforce Chinglapet, lest the French army should invest this place; the Sepoys by a forced march arrived before the enemy could have intercepted them, if such had been their intention: the next day Major Calliaud, with the remaining six companies of Sepoys, and all the cavalry, Abdulwahab at the head of his own, came into Madrass. Thus ended this siege, without doubt the most strenuous and regular that had ever been carried on in India; and we have detailed it, in hopes that it may remain an example and incitement.
End of the Tenth Book.