Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/210

202 Coffrees; and these two were the only enterprizes made on either side during the month of October. The enemy's batteries fired indeed constantly and smartly every day, and damaged some houses, but made no impression on the defences of the town: they supplied the defenders with a great number of cannon-balls, all of which had the English mark, being the same that the ships had fired against Pondicherry, with as little effect as they were now thrown away against Tritchinopoly.

But although little was to be feared from the efforts of an enemy who seemed ignorant of the first principles of a regular attack, yet every thing was to be apprehended from the poverty to which the Nabob was reduced. His troops threatened to desert: the expences of the English battalion, which used to be furnished from his treasury, began to be defrayed by that of Fort St. David, and he had no reason to believe that they would continue to support him any longer than there was a probability of extricating him out of his distresses; and these he foresaw would increase every day, unless he could obtain an army equal to that of Chunda-saheb, whose superiority had hitherto deterred the English troops from making any vigorous efforts. The only prince in the peninsula from whose situation, power, and inclination, the Nabob could expect the assistance which he stood so much in need of, was the king of Mysore. The territory of this Indian prince is bounded to the east by the southern part of the Carnatic, and the kingdom of Tritchinopoly; and to the west it extends, in some parts, within 30 miles of the sea-coast of Malabar. His annual revenue is computed at 20 millions of rupees; and the whole nation bore a mortal hatred to Chunda-saheb, who during the time that he governed Tritchinopoly, formed a design of conquering the country, and besieged for several months Caroor, the strongest of their frontier towns to the eastward. The king of Mysore being an infant, the government was administered by his uncle, who acted with unlimited power: to this regent, called in the country, the Dalaway of Mysore, Mahomed-ally applied for assistance; and finding that the dread of Chunda-saheb's successes was not alone a sufficient motive to induce him to take up arms, he agreed to all the terms which the Mysorean demanded, and these were very exorbitant. The Nabob ratified the