Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/236

228 morning, when it was too late to pursue them: he, however, marched to the fort, and took possession of the stores which the enemy had left in it.

Mr. Law received no intelligence of captain Dalton's march across the rivers; but the next morning discovering from the spire of Seringham, the detachment proceeding from Samiavaram towards Utatoor, imagined it to he a part of captain Olive's army; and on this supposition crossed the Coleroon with all his Europeans and Sepoys, and a large body of cavalry. Captain Clive immediately marched to meet him with all his troops, excepting the guards necessary to defend the approaches to his camp, and came in sight of the enemy just as their rear had crossed the river. Mr. Law, startled at the appearance of a force which so much exceeded his expectation, halted and formed his line in a strong situation along the bank of the river. Both armies remained in order of battle until evening, each having advantages which the other respected too much to venture to attack. Some skirmishes passed between the advanced Sepoys, and in the night the French re-crossed the river.

Captain Dalton remained two days at Utatoor, when he received orders to rejoin major Lawrence; but by this time the Coleroon was so much swelled as to be impassable, and the troops at Samiavaram were preparing to avail themselves of this opportunity to attack the enemy's post of Pitchandah, which could receive no succours from the island till the waters subsided: he therefore, to forward this service, put his detachment under captain Clive's command; and to prevent the disputes which might arise from the superiority of his rank, resolved to act himself as a volunteer. On the 14th at night the army moved down to the river-side.

There runs along the northern bank of the Coleroon, from Pitchandah to the ground opposite the great pagoda of Seringham, a large mound of earth 50 feet broad at the top, thrown up by the people of the country to resist the current of the river, which in this part sets strongly from the opposite shore whenever the waters rise. The enemy's camp on the island lay opposite and within cannon-shot of this mound; it was therefore determined to employ the artillery against them, until the battery against Pitchandah could be finished.