tivity; during which they were equally proof to all the allurements, and to all the terrors held out by the victor; generously to the laft refufing, though at the apparent peril of life, to facrifice their faith and attachments by entering into his fervice. The affection and tenderness which they fhewed to their European fellow foldiers, who were perifhing under those common miferies which they were better able to bear, dividing their miserable pit, tance of food with them, and endeavouring to leffen or to fhare in all their fufferings, are without example, in fuch circumftances, and among fuch a clafs of men, in any other part of the world, When they were at length permitted to rejoin their officers, who were ftill labouring under every degree of want and diftress, they, with the most rapturous expreffions and appearances of joy, of fered to prefent them with fuch fmall fums of money, as had either escaped the general pillage, or they had fince faved by ftarying themfelves. It may well be hoped, that no European who was a witness to thefe tranfactions, or who even hears them recounted, can ever be deficient in mercy or kindness to a Hindoo, Such actions, if any thing could, might ferve to cure all local prejudices; and induce all the race of mankind, however different in colour, or remote in place, to confider each other as brethren.

Tippoo Sultan, immediately after the reduction of Bednore, appeared with his vait army before Mangalore; the recovery of which was the next great object of his wishes. The place was

well commanded and well gar rifoned; but the defences were in no degree worthy of the defenders; fo that it required all the abilities of Major Campbell, feconded by the well-tried valour of the 42d regiment, and fupported by fome brave battalions of fepoys, to fupply the defects of the fortifications,

But notwithstanding the multitude of the enemy's troops, the handful of French auxiliaries, alone gave energy to their attacks; for Hyder's numerous body of native artillery men, who had coft him fo much time and pains in forming, feem, by this time, as well as the reft of his beft troops, to have been entirely exhaufted. By their exertions the works were fo much ruined, that it seemed as if the garrison would foon be reduced to fight upon equal terms with the befiegers, when an account of the peace be, tween England and France was received in the month of July, Tippoo Sultan was by no means pleafed with the conduct of France, in

concluding a peace without his concurrence, or, at leaft, without including him in the treaty; but the pofitive refufal of the French commander and his troops to act in any manner against the English, or even to continue longer in the camp, was exceedingly ill taken by him; and he is faid to have fhewn, upon this occafion, much want of that command of temper, by which Hyder was eminently diftinguished. Senfible of the infufficiency of his own troops to profecute the fiege with effect, and ftung to the heart at miffing the recovery of a place of fo much importance, after having confi

dered

dered it as little less than already. in his hands, it is faid, that when all means of perfuafion failed, he then infifted, that no treaty whatever, in which he was not a party, could release the French troops from their engagements with him, or at all warrant their departure from his army, until the enter prize, which they had undertaken in concert with his own forces, and in which they were now so far advanced, was completed.

We are not certain how far we can rely upon our authorities in this matter; but it faid, that Tippoo Sultan urged this point with fuch pertinacity, that it was for a time imagined he intended to retain the French troops, and to compel their fervices by force. And it is farther afferted, that though he did not venture to proceed to fo violent an extremity, he however parted them with an exceeding ill grace, and that much diffatisfaction was evident on both fides.

The fiege of Mangalore was then converted to a blockade. A ceffation of arms afterwards took place; but the garrifon were reduced to the utmoft diftrefs through the want of provifions; and it would feem, that though a peace was in agitation, Tippoo ufed his utmost endeavours to ftarve them into a furrender; but the arrival of General Macleod, with a strong force from Bombay, upon the coaft, obliged him, unwillingly, to confent to their receiving a fupply. No military event of any confideration after wards took place on the Malabar coaft. Carwar, Onore, and fome other forts, as well as Mangalore, ftill continued in the hands of the

English, until, by the peace concluded between the company and Tippoo Sultan, in the following year, a general reftitution of the conquefts on both fides took place, and the tranquility of India was, for the prefent, fully reftored.

We are now to take notice of the proceedings on the coaft of Coromandel, during these transactions on the oppofite fide of the Feninfula, which will close our account of thefe long, dangerous, and very extenfive wars.

Sir Eyre Coote's ill state of health, which, we have seen, obliged him to quit the field, and to leave the command of the army in the hands of General Stuart, ftill continuing, and the feafson of action being likewife over, the hope of benefiting by the voyage. and change of air, with the no lefs operative motive, of procuring fuch a fupply of money as might enable him to profecute the war with decifive effect in the enfuing campaign, induced that general to proceed in the Medea frigate, from Madras to Bengal, juft previous to the coming on of the monfoon feason, and to that dreadful hurricane which defolated the coaft in the preceding year,

If the proceedings of public bodies of men, were to be at all measured or judged of, by the fame lines of action or rules of conduct, which prefcribe or influence the tranfactions of individuals in private affairs, it would appear an extraordinary, if not a very reprehenfible circumftance, that this feafon of the general's abfence, and that upon business of the utmost importance to the ftate, fhould be feized, by a government which owed its exist

ence to his military abilities and exertions, for the adoption of a measure fo exceedingly ungrateful in its nature, as to carry all the appearance of an intended perfonal flight, if not of a direct and pofitive affront.

That admirable band of felected foldiers, confifting of feveral companies of the first regiment of Bengal European infantry, who had originally, in the feafon of diftrefs and danger, accompanied the general by fea to the refcue of the Carnatic, and whofe unequalled valour and conduct had contributed fo highly, not lefs in example than in act, to the unhoped-for turn of affairs, and the glorious fucceffes of the war, were now, fpeedily after the general's departure, and without his confent or knowledge, remanded back, the fame way by which they came, to their eftablishment at Calcutta.

The public addrefs of thanks, which the commander in chief dedicated to thofe brave troops upon their arrival, is in fome degree expreffive of his fentiments and feelings upon the occafion. This piece (which may be confidered as his military teftament, and which, along with his own, communicated the royal thanks, just received from England) does equal honour to the parties on both fides concerned; to the general who beftows, and to the troops who merited fuch fignal *praife. After fuch unbounded acknowledgments to both officers and foldiers, as nothing but the warmet gratitude, arifing from a fresh fenfe of great and important fervice could infpire, and point. ing them out, not only as re

flecting particular luftre on the corps to which they belonged, but as patterns of imitation to the army in general, he barely mentions, without any immediate comment on the proceeding, the circumstance of their being fent back by the government of Madras, but then indicates the vexation as well as difappointment to himself, by obferving in a plaintive manner, that he had intended, that that chofen band of veterans, who originally undertook the fervice in the Carnatic along with him, fhould ftill have remained there, until they had participated in the honour of gloriously clofing a war, in which they had throughout held fo active a fhare, and lamenting, that he fhould now, upon his return, be deprived of their fervices on that field.

The commander in chief's health being to all appearance confiderably restored, and the feafon for action approaching, he took his departure from Calcutta, bringing with him ten lacks of rupees, on board the Refolution armed fhip, belonging to the company; and in a full confidence of bringing the war in the Carnatic to a fpeedy conclufion. It happened very unfortunately towards the clofe of the voyage, that they fell in with and were fo clofely chaced by two French ships of the line, that during the greater part, if not the whole, of two days and two nights, the escape of the Refolution feemed little less than impoffible. The ruinous confequences of becoming himfelf a prifoner, and of the lofs of the money, which must have included the total overthrow of all his defigns and hopes, could not, in fo

critical

in fuch a degree, as to render them little more than capable of working the ships.

An unfortunate accident at Madras had previously leffened their force, by the lofs of ten officers, and 127 of the best seamen in the fleet, who had been all blown up in their endeavours to fave the Duke of Athol Indiaman, which had taken fire in that road. It is obfervable, that the fhips which had arrived in fuch remarkable good health from England under Commodore Bickerton, in the preceding year, fuffered much more extremely than any others by this diforder; although it might be fuppofed, that their crews had time fince to become tolerably feasoned to the climate. A circumftance mentioned by the admiral, without any apparent allufion to this fubject, might poffibly have contributed to the diforder. He obferves, that great delay and difappointment occurred in watering the fhips at Madras, through the want of a fufficient number of fhore boats, and the high furf on the beach; and that the water of many of the fhips was by no means complete when he put to fea. It likewife appears that he afterwards attempted, in vain, to procure a fupply of water, both at Porto Novo, and at Tranquebar; and that the fcarcity became at length fo great, as to affect his operations, and obliged him, at a very critical feafon, to return to Madras. The caufe, however, (if we confider this as fuch) does not feem equal to the effect; and if it was, the fcarcity or badnefs of water, was not likely to affect

the ships laft from England, in a greater degree than any others.

The command of the army continued of courfe in the hands of General Stuart. The great object of the campaign was the expulfion of the French from the Carnatic; but though they were now left to fight the battle nearly alone, yet they were fo ftrongly fortified in Cuddalore, fo abundantly provided with artillery, ammunition, and every provision for war, and their force fo confiderable, both with refpect to quality and number, that as their views for the prefent were merely defenfive, it could not but be a task of great difficulty to difpoffefs them of that hold, which they had fpent fo much time and labour to render unaffailable.

The Marquis de Buffy had lately arrived to take the command, and had brought with him the laft divifion of the forces from the Mauritius. As France had no continental war to occupy her armies in Europe, fhe had fent fome of her beft troops and oldest regiments upon this fervice. We have no particular information as to the amount of their force at this period; and the viciffitudes in that refpect are fo great and fudden in that part of the world, that no well-founded conclufion can be drawn, from any former ftatement, of the actual number of troops fit for fervice at a fubfequent given time. It however appears that their European force was very confiderable; and was farther frengthened by a body of fepoys, which Tippoo Sultan had left behind to act with them as auxiliaries.

General