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period of the monsoon. They were even reduced to the necessity of abandoning Adonie, after hastily withdrawing its distinguished inmates; and the victor on entering found numerous apartments still fitted up with all the splendour of royal palaces.

The sultan had now just ground to boast of his success; yet he aimed at extending it still farther. He caused a great quantity of timber to be felled in the forests of Bednore, and floated down the Toombuddra, where it was converted into rafts and basket-boats for conveying his forces across. All his officers dissuaded him from the daring scheme of carrying beyond this barrier offensive operations against such powerful armies. He rejected every argument, and in the course of a week had actually transported the whole of his troops to the other side. The enemy, who could not be made to believe in any such attempt, had neglected all precautions against it; and their indecisive movements soon showed how completely they were taken by surprise. After repeated marches and countermarches, Tippoo, with his whole force in four divisions, made a midnight attack upon their camp. Through a want of co-operation between these detachments, the undertaking did not completely succeed; yet the enemy were thereby compelled to quit their position, and when they afterward attempted to regain it, were repulsed with considerable loss. The general issue of the day was such as induced them to retreat, abandoning to Tippoo the important city and district of Savanoor. Soon after overtures were made for a treaty, which was concluded on the condition that the sultan should acknowledge the tribute stipulated by Hyder; amounting still, after some liberal deductions, to forty-five lacks of rupees, thirty of which were actually paid. He restored also Adonie and the other towns taken during the war, and was in return recognised as sovereign of nearly all India, south of the river Toombuddra.

By this successful contest against such a powerful confederacy Tippoo had earned perhaps the greatest military name in India. He had displayed even prudence and moderation in the terms on which he concluded peace. He now considered himself, accordingly, the undisputed ruler of the south, and at liberty to propagate the Mohammedan faith by violence of every description. His first movement was to

descend the Ghauts, into the territory of Calicut, or Malabar Proper, which, by a hard-won conquest, Hyder had annexed to the dominion of Mysore. Here he found a race inspired with such deadly enmity to his favourite creed, that if a Mussulman touched the outer wall of a house, they thought it necessary to reduce the whole to ashes. Their religious profession, indeed, derived little credit from their moral conduct, since custom among the nayrs, or natives of high rank, sanctioned a mode of living so extremely dissolute, that Tippoo did not exaggerate when he told them that "they were all born in adultery, and were more shameless in their connexions than the beasts of the field." But notwithstanding these habits, they possessed the utmost bravery, and were prepared to make the most determined resistance to the resolution entertained by the sultan of compelling them to undergo circumcision and eat beef. Even when vanquished they submitted to both conditions with extreme reluctance; and many sought refuge in the heart of forests, or in the surrounding mountains, till at length the whole were either circumcised or driven from their fields and homes. The victor then commenced a war against the religious edifices. He publicly boasted that he had razed to the ground eight thousand temples, with their roofs of gold, silver, and copper, after digging up the treasures buried at the feet of the idols; but there is reason to believe that in this instance he greatly exaggerated his own enormities. At length he became so elated with these exploits, that he appears to have considered himself as really endued with supernatural powers, and little, if at all, inferior to Mohammed, the founder of his faith. Being strongly advised by his counsellors not to attempt passing the Ghauts during the height of the rainy season, he replied, that "he would order the clouds to cease discharging their waters until he should have passed." But he had soon to encounter a mortal foe, against whom neither his earthly nor his celestial powers were found to avail.

The little kingdom of Travancore, forming the western part of the most southerly extremity of India, amid the revolutions which shook the greater states in its vicinity, had hitherto succeeded in maintaining independence and neutrality. It was protected, not only by a lofty chain of mountains, extending as far as Cape Comorin, but by

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the more imperfect barrier of a wall and ditch covering its whole frontier. Tippoo, however, had fixed his eyes with intense eagerness on the conquest of a territory which lay, as it were, enclosed within his recent acquisitions, and would complete their circuit. He contrived several grounds of dissatisfaction. The territory of Cochin, which had now been reduced under complete vassalage to Mysore, happened so to intersect that of Travancore, that the wall formed for the defence of the one enclosed some portions of the other; and Tippoo could complain that his passage to a certain part of his dominions was obstructed by this barrier. The Rajah of Travancore again, with the view of securing his frontier, had purchased from the Dutch the forts of Cranganor and Ayacotta, which the latter had long ago conquered from the Portuguese. This measure was deeply resented by Tippoo, who remarked that these forts stood within his territories, and alleged, though seemingly without reason, that the Dutch had owned his superiority, and paid a rent for the land. Lastly, the refugee nayrs, flying from his persecution, had found a friendly reception in Travancore. On these or any other grounds the sultan would not have been slow to execute his purpose, had it not been checked by a defensive alliance formed during the last war between the rajah and the English. It was therefore necessary to afford explanations to the government at Madras, who seem to have felt the utmost disposition to preserve pacific relations with Mysore. They professed themselves ready to listen to all reasonable grounds of complaint, and proposed sending two commissioners to examine, and endeavour to adjust the matters in dispute. This did not harmonize with the design of Tippoo, who hastened with his whole force to attack the weak barrier of the Travancore lines. The extent of such a fortification necessarily rendered it inefficient; and accordingly, on the 29th December, 1789, while a numerous body, comprising apparently the whole army, by a feigned attack on the principal gate, occupied the attention of the inhabitants, Tippoo, with upwards of 14,000 men, the flower of his troops, had effected his entrance at an unguarded point on the right flank. He then pushed along the interior of the rampart to reach the nearest entrance and open it to his men. For some time his progress was almost unresisted; the inhabitants retreating

from one tower after another; though, as reinforcements arrived, they began to make a more vigorous stand. They maintained their defence particularly in a large square building that served the joint purpose of a magazine and barrack; and here Tippoo, seeing his first division considerably diminished by successive contests, ordered it to be strengthened by a fresh corps. This operation was ill understood and imperfectly executed; and as the troops were advancing in some disorder, a party of twenty Travancoreans, from under close covert, opened a brisk fire on their flank. The commanding officer fell, when the whole body was thrown into irretrievable confusion. The mass of fugitives drove before them a detachment which was advancing to their support, and who again impelled those behind. Many were thrown down and trampled to death; and the ditch was filled with heaps of dead bodies. The sultan himself was borne along by the torrent, and some servants with difficulty conveyed him over the ditch, after he had twice fallen, and suffered contusions; from the lameness thereby occasioned he never entirely recovered. His palanquin, the bearers of which had been trodden to death, was left behind; and his seals, rings, and other ornaments fell into the hands of the enemy. He hastened forward, partly on foot and partly in a small carriage, and arrived at his camp in the most miserable plight, after losing 2000 of his men. So precarious is the fortune with which war, and especially barbarous war, is often attended!

It may be easier to conceive than describe the rage and humiliation of Tippoo at seeing his fine army thus completely repulsed by a despised enemy. He made a vow that he would not leave the encampment till he had retrieved and avenged the disaster. All his detachments were called in, his heavy cannon was brought down from Seringapatam and Bangalore; and though more than three months were employed in these preparations, he succeeded completely in lulling the suspicions of the British, and in persuading them that he was still desirous of maintaining amicable relations. At length, his arrangements being completed, about the beginning of April, 1790, he opened regular batteries against this contemptible wall, and soon made a breach nearly three-quarters of a mile in extent. The troops of Travancore, thus exposed in the open field, fled

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with little resistance, and Tippoo soon saw the whole country lying defenceless before him. He immediately laid siege to Cranganor, near which, on the neighbouring island of Vipeen, the English had a small force stationed to assist the rajah. These were reinforced by three battalions under Colonel Hartley, who, on finding that he could not undertake offensive operations, withdrew the native garrison from the place, and took up a defensive position, in which the enemy did not attempt to molest him. The Mysorean commander now overran a great part of the conquered territory, committing his usual devastations, and carrying great numbers of the inhabitants into captivity. Many, however, retired to their southern fastnesses, where they could with difficulty be pursued; and the season becoming unfavourable, Tippoo, who was also alarmed by the movements of the English, returned to Seringapatam, after having levelled to the ground the wall which had proved so unexpectedly formidable.

The Marquis Cornwallis had arrived in 1786 as governorgeneral, with a view to effect a complete reform in the system of Indian policy. To avoid by every possible means war with the native powers was one of his leading instructions. He began, accordingly, by proclaiming, in a manner that has been censured as too full and undisguised, the determination to engage in no hostilities not strictly defensive. Yet his views very early underwent a change; and he began to consider it necessary, or at least highly expedient, to engage in an extended warfare with the view of humbling completely the power of Mysore. It seems difficult to discover any good ground for altering his determination so entirely. Tippoo had no doubt shown himself very formidable; yet there was no reason to apprehend, while the whole of Central India was united by the alliance between the nizam and the Mahrattas, that the balance of power would be actually endangered; on the contrary, it was likely to be in greater peril from the downfall of one of these parties and the immoderate aggrandizement of the others. The new governor-general in adopting this policy was greatly influenced, we suspect, by the restless and violent disposition of the sultan, and by an abhorrence of the cruel persecutions which he continued to inflict upon the inhabitants of the coast of Malabar.

The views of the marquis were soon developed by a