86 LORD WELLESLEY'S PREPARATIONS FOR WAR. [CHAP. and employed in expelling the English from India. He was likewise inviting Zemaun Shah to cross the Indus, and join him in prosecuting "a holy war against the infidels, polytheists, and heretics." "Please God," he said, "the English shall become food for the unrelenting sword of the pious warriors." Lord Wellesley's letter of the 9th January appears to have given him the first clear monition of the danger which he had incurred by his negotiations with the French, and his first impulse was to receive the mission of Major Doveton, and throw himself on the consideration of the Governor-General. The letter addressed to him by Bonaparte, from Egypt, stating "that he had arrived on the borders of the Red Sea, with an innumerable and invincible army, full of the desire of delivering him from the iron yoke of England," had not as yet reached him; but his French officers assured him that the army of Bonaparte must already have embarked for India, and might be daily expected. After many days of alternate hope and fear, he forwarded his reply with this significant expression: 66 Being frequently disposed to make excursions and hunt, I am, accordingly, proceeding on a hunting excursion. You will be pleased to despatch Major Doveton, slightly attended (or unattended)." Strength and progress of the British Army, 1799. But Tippoo had miscalculated the character of the man he had now to deal with, and the length to which he might venture to procrastinate. Lord Wellesley had determined to bring the war to a close in a single campaign, by one vigorous and decisive blow at the capital. Seringapatam was the great object of Tippoo's pride, the centre of his power, his principal granary, and his only arsenal, on the preservation of which he considered the fate of his kingdom to depend. Unlike any other fort in India, it was impregnable from June to November, owing to the rise of the Cavery around the island on which it was erected. Unless, therefore, it could be reduced before the rains set in, the campaign must prove abortive, and the intolerable expense of a second season of military operations must XIX.] STRENGTH OF THE BRITISH ARMY. 87 be incurred. As the year advanced, every moment became increasingly important, and Lord Wellesley, after waiting in vain for the early reply he had solicited from Tippoo, on the 3rd February ordered the army to break ground. In reply to the cold and ungracious letter of the Sultan, when it arrived, he expressed regret that his earnest representations of the dangers of delay had not been heeded. The mission of Major Doveton, he said, was no longer expedient; but General Harris, who was advancing at the head of an army into Mysore, would be prepared to receive any embassy Tippoo might think fit to send. The army which was now about to take the field was considered the best appointed, and the most perfect in point of equipment and discipline which had ever been collected in India under the British standard. Only six months before, the Madras functionaries had declared that it would be impossible to assemble a force of more than 8,000 men, which would be scarcely equal to the defence of the Carnatic, if it were invaded by the Sultan. But the commanding energy of Lord Wellesley, seconded by the indefatigable exertions of his brother, Colonel Wellesley, and of the son of the great Clive, now Governor of Madras, had called into existence an army 20,802 men, of whom 6,000 were Europeans, with a battering train of 40 guns and 64 field-pieces and howitzers. To this number was added 10,000 of the Nizam's cavalry and the Hyderabad subsidiary force, which included 3,600 of Raymond's disciplined sepoys, and made up another body of 10,000 foot, under the direction of European officers, and commanded by Colonel Wellesley and Captain Malcolm. It thus became an efficient auxiliary, instead of the dead weight it had proved during the campaign of Lord Cornwallis. The army was fortunate in its superior officers, all of whom, with one exception, enjoyed the advantage of the experience acquired in the previous Mysore war; while General Harris, the General-in-chief, was personally acquainted with all the localities on the route. Lord Wellesley possessed in an eminent degree two of the greatest qualifications for command, great discernment in the of 88 TIPPOO MARCHES TO THE WESTERN COAST. [CHAP. selection of his instruments, and the wisdom of reposing unreserved confidence in them; and never were these talents more distinctly exhibited than on the present occasion, by the accordance of unfettered authority to General Harris, and the able officers associated with him. The Bombay division of 6,420 troops was assembled under General Stuart at Cannanore, on the Malabar coast, to advance simultaneously on the capital. Tippoo marches coast, 1799. Tippoo, who had made several marches to the to the western eastward to meet Major Doveton, at length assembled his chief officers, and expressed his vexation that while the English were closing on him from the east and the west he was losing invaluable time, and pointed out the necessity of "marching, and striking some decisive blow." He determined, therefore, to leave Poornea and Syud Sahib with a sufficient force to watch the movements of General Harris, and to march in person with the flower of his army across the peninsula and engage the army of General Stuart, whose advanced post was then at Seedasere. It was diligently propagated throughout the country that Tippoo was proceeding against General Harris, and nothing was so little expected by the Bombay army as his appearance in its neighbourhood. On the morning of the 5th March, however, the raja of Coorg, a gallant prince, the grateful ally of the Company, and the mortal enemy of the family of Hyder, who had always oppressed him, ascended the hill of Seedasere, and to his amazement beheld the plain below covered with Tippoo's encampment. Preparations were immediately made to meet. the attack of the enemy by General Hartley, the second in command, a name of ancient and high renown on that coast. On the morning of the 6th the advanced brigade was vigorously assailed by the Sultan's entire force, and three battalions under the gallant Colonel Montresor sustained the assault for six hours with such cool and determined bravery, that the utmost efforts of Tippoo's best officers and troops could make no impression on their ranks. General Stuart, who was ten XIX.] BATTLE OF MALAVELLY. 89 miles in the rear, hastened to their assistance, and found them exhausted with fatigue and reduced to their last cartridge. His timely arrival decided the fortune of the day. Within half an hour Tippoo's army retreated through the wood with the loss of 2,000 men. He continued for six days to linger in the vicinity in a state of great perplexity, and on the 11th March turned his back on the Bombay force, and marched to oppose the advance of General Harris. Progress of 1799. General Harris reached Bangalore on the 15th General Harris, March, with the heavy charge of conveying the vast and cumbrous equipage for the siege in safety to its destination. Of the three routes which led from Bangalore to Seringapatam he had chosen the most southern. It presented many points where a bold and skilful enemy might have seriously obstructed his progress, more especially on the banks of the Madoor, which afforded an excellent position for opposing the passage of an army. But, throughout the campaign, the Sultan appeared to be bewildered, if not infatuated; and, in direct opposition to the advice of his own most experienced officers, and of his French commandant, he fixed upon Malavelly as the field for encountering the English force. The battle, in which Colonel Wellesley particularly distinguished himself, terminated in the complete discomfiture of Tippoo, with the loss of 1,000 men. After the defeat he moved his encampment in a northern direction, not doubting that General Harris would adopt the route to Seringapatam which had been taken in the previous war by Lord Cornwallis. It had therefore been laid waste under his own inspection, and not a particle of dry forage or a pile of grass was left unconsumed. But the chief of the guide corps, Major Allen, whose exertions contributed pre-eminently to the success of the campaign, and Captain Macaulay, were sent southward to examine the road which led to the Cavery, twelve miles distant; and they returned at midnight with the report that it presented a fine and open tract of country, and that the ford at Sosilla afforded 90 BRITISH ARMY ARRIVES AT SERINGAPATAM. [CHAP. every facility for the passage of an army. The next morning the whole force marched down with all promptitude, and before nightfall one wing was across the river, while Tippoo was twenty miles distant, in an opposite direction, waiting to oppose General Harris's progress towards the capital. The happy choice of this route gave the famished cattle an abundance of rich pasturage; it facilitated the junction of the Bombay army, and it rendered abortive the dispositions which Tippoo had made for defending the northern face of Seringapatam. Nothing could exceed his dismay and rage when he found all his plans frustrated by this admirable strategy. He summoned his principal officers, and said, "We have now arrived at our last stage; what is your determination?" "To die with you," was their unanimous reply. Every one present was deeply affected at the distress of his sovereign, who was bathed in tears, and the meeting broke up with the firm resolution to make one last and desperate effort for the defence of the capital and the kingdom, with no alternative but victory or death. The Army before No farther opposition was made to the progress of the British army, the advanced post of which was established within 1,600 yards of the fort on the 6th April. This direct march on the capital with a heavy siege train, through a hundred and fifty miles of the enemy's territory, without establishing a single intermediate post, was in accordance with that daring spirit which had won our dominion in India, and which, when conducted by such men as Harris, and Baird, and Wellesley, and Malcolm, could scarcely be considered rash; but it was not effected without the greatest risks. If Tippoo's resources had been directed with any degree of ability, this attempt to reach the capital, with an unwieldy convoy, might have ended in disaster. Though extraordinary efforts had been made to perfect the equipment of the force, and the number of cattle provided for its use exceeded 60,000, not including a countless multitude of brinjarees and provision dealers, the army had no sooner begun |