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their camp. But Hyder's fon was not to be caught afleep in his camp. After forcing an outpoft or two, and taking a few prifoners, the colonel either perceived fuch a face of things, or received fuch intelligence, as convinced him that it was neceffary to relinquish his defign, before he was too far involved in the attempt.

This infult was returned by the enemy a few days after; who made a regular and vigorous attack with their whole army upon the British lines and works, being led by Lally at the head of his Europeans; but they were every where repulfed with the greatest gallantry, and with no Imall lofs to themfelves; the termination of the affair, fo far as the great difparity of force would permit the victors to profit of their fuccefs, being no less than an abfolute defeat. About 200 of their dead, whom they could not carry off, were buried by the English; and a French officer, who led up one of the columns to the attack, was taken prifoner. Col. Macleod had great merit in this action; and his conduct fully juftified all the praife that was beftowed on it.

Tippoo Saib acknnowledged his defeat, by repaffing the river of Paniany, and placing it as a barrier against his enemy. A ftate of inaction fucceeded on both fides for feveral days; but in the night between the 11th and 12th of December, Tippoo Saib fuddenly broke up his camp, and returned by the most rapid marches to Palacatcherry; from whence he held on his courfe directly back to the Carnatic. As Hyder had

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for fome time been grievously asflicted by a moft painful and incurable diforder, no doubt can be entertained, but that this precipitate retreat proceeded either from intelligence of his death, or of his life being in extreme danger; for it is not to be fuppofed that any thing lefs could have induced him to abandon the Malabar coaft, in the ftate of danger, to which he knew his departure would expose both that and the interior countries; nor were there any military operations, either in act, or in immediate contemplation in the Carnatic, which could at all have demanded his prefence.

In the mean time, Col. Macleod being reinforced by fome troops from Bombay, and Gen. Mathews having received intelligence at Goa of Tippoo Saib's. defeat and retreat, and knowing that the detachment to the fouthward was thereby freed from all danger, he changed his intention of proceeding much lower down the coaft, and directed his views to an attack upon Hyder in the richest and most valuable parts, as well as those the most remote from fuccour, of all his dominions. In this view he proceeded with the fleet and forces to the river Mir jee, which falls into the fea, fomething about 80 miles to the fouthward of Goa, and about five leagues to the northward of Onore. After taking a fort at the mouth of this river, he changed his defign of attacking another fortrefs of greater ftrength which lay higher up, and proceeded directly to befiege the city of Onore, which lies about midway between Paniany and Bombay,

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and is fomething about 300 miles from either. It feems to be the capital of the long and narrow territory of Canaree, fhut in between the mountains and the fea; and feparated by the former from the antient kingdom of Canara, of which it is a member.

Gen. Mathews had already difpatched moft of the tranfports with a convoy to the fouthward, with orders to bring up all the troops that could be fpared from the mere purposes of defence on that part of the coast, to affift in his intended operations. In confequence of which Col. Macleod immediately embarked as many troops as the fhips were capable of receiving, confting of all the Europeans, and of the fecond regiment of fepoys, with which he proceeded, under convoy of the Iis and Juno, to join the general; two other regiments of fepoys, being left at Tellicherry in readinefs to proceed, together with the elephants and draught bullocks, and the Africa man of war ftaying behind for their convoy, as foon as other fhips fhould arrive for their conveyance.

But before the arrival Jan. 5th. of the fouthern troops, 1783. Onore was taken by fterm, and a crucl flaughter was faid to have been made of the inhabitants of all fexes, ages, and orders, as well as of the garrifon; the official accounts however ftate, that the killedar, or governor, with 1,200 men, were made prifoners. It is to be obferved, that Hyder had no regular forces in this or the neighbouring parts of his dominions; that the defence of the country was committed entirely to the na

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tive poligars or militia; and that thefe, particularly in this quarter, had never before feen the face or appearance of war; for the kingdom of Canara (which, from the former name of its capital, is generally called by the English the Bednore Country) had fallen to Hyder without ftriking a blow; and its fituation had, in all earlier times, been confidered as inacceffible to the approach of an enemy. Though no particulars as to the amount are given, the plunder at Onore must have been neceffarily very great; and fome peculiar circumstances which then took place with respect to the difpofition of the fpoil, laid the feeds of that diffatisfaction and difcontent between the commander and the army, which continued to grow up and frengthen through the whole courfe of the expedition, and ended in mutual charge and accufation.

Hyder Ally's death happened about this time; probably towards the clofe of the year 1782. We are left in the dark as to time, place, and all the other circumtances of that event; for as Tippoo Saib's fituation afforded the trongeft motives for keeping it fecret as long as poffible, fo, when it could no longer be concealed, it was paft over as a thing already known, without the parade. of a detail which would have been then out of time.

Hyder Ally was undoubtedly one of the greatest princes, as well as the greatest warrior, that India ever produced. His mind was fo vaft and comprehenfive, as

at once to reach to and embrace

all the parts of war and of Covernment. It feemed as if all

the

the qualities neceffary to the foundation and permanency of a great empire, were among the earlieft feeds that fprung up in his mind; and that he looked forward from the fmallest beginnings, to that ultimate point which never departed from his view. The formation of fuch a native military force, as India had never beheld, and was thought incapable of producing the conquest of great countries, and the acquifition of others without the fword; the raifing of thefe to a degree of power, eftimation, and real value, which they never before poffeffed; afforded but a moderate difplay of Hyder's talents and abilities. Beides the establishment of a mighty empire, and the reducing of the Europeans to their original ftate of merchants and factors, living, as fuch, entirely under the protection and government of the ftate, his vaft defigns reached, not only to becoming the greateft commercial power of Afia, but to what the east had never before

beheld, the creation of an invincible navy, which fhould for ever fecure the coafts of India from the invafions or infults of foreigners. If he was not a legif lator, he had, however, the merit of establishing fo mild and equitable a fyftem of government in his dominions, that the new fubjects of fo many countries were not only attached to his perfon in a moft extraordinary degree, but the neighbouring nations thewed on every occafion their wishes to come under his protection; excepting only from the foregoing part of this conclufion, that molt fingular of all people, the conquered Nairs on the Ma

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labar coaft; whose habits were invincible, though their bodies were eafily fubdued.

Nor was he more redoubtable as a warrior than as a statesman; and if his actions, and the chain and motives of his conduct, had not been too remote from obfervation, to be thoroughly known and comprehended, he might poffibly have been confidered as one of the first politicians of his day, whether in Europe or in Afia. He was fo far from being naturally cruel, that he differed in that refpect from all the eastern conquerors of whom we have any knowledge; but as he detefted all private treachery, and was a strict obferver himself of the laws of war, and of the public faith, so, his punishments in the one inftance, and his retaliations in the other, were fo extremely fevere, as to carry upon fome occafions the appearance of cruelty; efpecially with thofe who were not informed of the causes, or who were not difpofed to confider the motives. Hyder defpifed, and difpenfed with, fo far as it could with propriety be done, the vain pageantry and haughty pomp of the Indian courts; living in habits of great intimacy and familiarity with his friends, courtiers, and officers; difplaying in his own perfon the frank manners of a camp, instead of the proud dif tance and auftere referve of an eaftern despot. He had been, greatly through their own fault, and partly through their interference with his defigns, a bitter, and very nearly a fatal enemy, to the English East India company; but it would be difgraceful and, mean, on that account, to fup

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prefs his virtues, or endeavour to conceal his great qualities.

General Mathews had received pofitive orders from the prefident and council of Bombay, that, if the reports of Hyder's death were confirmed, he should, without delay, ufe every poffible exertion, to penetrate through the Gauts, as the paffes in the mountains on both fides of the Peninfula are called,, into the Bednore, or Canara coun, try, and particularly to gain poffeflion of the capital; which, along with a strong fort on a fmall mountain that joins the city, were the great depofitaries of Hyder's treatures, as well as the grand magazines of his arms and military ftores. That commander accordingly, after the taking of Onore, proceeded farther down the coaft, which was ftill purfuing the line of conduct propofed, where he took the town of Cundapore, with little lofs or difficulty.

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That eafy fuccefs did not how ever feem to reconcile him to the enterprize against the Bednore country; for immediately after the taking of Cundapore, he reprefented in very strong terms to the government of Bombay, the difficulty, if not the impracticability of that defign; ftating the total infufficiency of his army for the purpofe, and the neceffary fatal confequences of a failure, which he feemed to think inevita

ble.

This defpondency of their commander, in the actual courfe of fuccefs, when the most fanguine hopes were already formed, and no enemy appeared within reach, nor no untoward accident intervened to prevent their completion,

excited great diffatisfaction at Bombay. That government had built much of their defign in the invafion of the Bednore country upon the fuppofed difaffection of Hyder's fubjects, and the diforders which his death, in fuch a difpofition of the people, would occafion in every part of his dominions; nothing lefs than revolutions in whole kingdoms were expected, and even reported, as facts, to have happened; and as that temper was particularly attributed to the kingdom of Canara, it was not to be imagined, under that opinion, that any extraordinary force would be neceffary, to induce the inhabitants to the accomplishment of their own wishes, in throwing off or rejecting the government of Tippoo Saib.

But however diffatisfied the prefident and council were, in being obliged to relinquith their favourite object, they did not think it by any means fitting or prudent, to perfevere in exacting a ftrict compliance with their former orders, when fo decided an opinion had been given against the defign, by the very officer who was entrusted with carrying it into execution. They accordingly, tho' with great reluctance, relaxed their former orders, in the new inftructions which they difpathed to Gen. Mathews; giving him a difcretionary power, with refpect to deferring, or to proceeding on the defigned expedition; but, at the fame time, ftrongly recommending to him, that he would, in balancing the difficulties against the advantages, give due weight in the latter fcale, to the confequences which were naturally or probably to be expected from Hyder's death.

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But that commander had already taken his meafures without waiting for any inftructions; and it would indeed feem that they had been determined upon, at the very time that he remonftrated fo ftrongly to his employers upon their impracticability. His conduct

at and after this time was fo extraordinary, that it not only became mysterious, but in many inftances totally unintelligible. He feemed to forget the government by which he was employed, and that he was under the controul of any. All correfpondence with. Bombay was at an end; and thro' the whole courfe of the fubfequent fplendid fucceffes, no military detail of the proceedings of the army under his command, was ever tranfmitted by him to that or to any other government. It is with pain we recount, that as flaughter, cruelty, rapine, and avarice, had difgraced this expedition in its commencement at Onore, fo the fame detestable maxims and vices, continued to ftain its whole progrefs, until they were, at its fatal conclufion, moft cruelly requited; when the innocent became, indifcriminately with the guilty, victims to the rage of an exafperated and merciless enemy.

Under one of the circumftances which we have already ftated, and others which will appear in the courfe of the narration, it will be eafily feen, that we are left much in the dark as to the detail of the enfuing military operations. A few leading facts, ferve to form an authenticated general outline; the intervening matter must be confidered either as a deduction neceffarily proceeding from thefe, or as refting upon the authority of

thofe private letters which have appeared from fome of the officers engaged in the expédition, to their friends; but even of this kind of information, the calamity, which finally involved the destruction of the whole army, has occafioned an unufual paucity. Indeed one officer has fince declared, that at that unhappy inftant, he tore to pieces. in the face of the enemy, a regular detail which he had written, of the whole courfe of military operations throughout the expedition.

It may be judged from fome of thefe accounts, that the ideas entertained at Bombay, of conciliating the good-will of the natives, and thereby of encouraging the difpofition of the people to a revolt against the government of Tippoo Saib, were either not at all understood, or, at least, were by no means adopted by the army; for the furprizing and furrounding of a few hundreds of the unmilitary poligars at their pofts, and without remorfe or pity configning them to the bayonet, are reprefented lightly, without the obfervation or reflection which fuch matters feem to demand.

The officer, indeed, who gives an account of the maffacre at the fortrefs of Annampore, which was taken by ftorm, under fome preceding circumftances of aggravation on the fide of the governor, and from whence only one horseman, defperately wounded, had the fortune to efcape the general flaughter, feems to feel no fmall compunction and horror, in de-, fcribing the fpectacle which was there exhibited, of four hundred beautiful women, all bleeding with wounds of the bayonet, and either

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