Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/379

Book V. and finding that they had done much mischief to the water-courses which from this place supply the ditches and reservoirs of Tritchinopoly, they employed some days in repairing them; after which major Lawrence, in compliance with a promise he had made to the king of Tanjore, detached Monac-gee with the Tanjorine troops, accompanied by a party of 220 Europeans, 600 Sepoys, and two field-pieces, under the command of captain Joseph Smith, to Coiladdy, in order to protect the coolies employed there in repairing the great bank which the enemy had ruined in the month of May. The rainy season being now set in, the rest of the English battalion and Sepoys went into cantonments in Warriore pagodas, on the 13th of September. At this time a squadron, under the command of admiral Watson consisting of three ships, of 60, 50, and 20 guns, with a sloop, as also several of the company's ships, arrived on the coast, having on board the 49th regiment of 700 men, under the command of colonel Adlereron, with 40 of the king's artillery men, and 200 recruits for the company's troops. The French likewise had received during this season, 1200 men, of which number 600 were a body of hussars, under the command of Fitscher, a partizan of some reputation; but the rest were only raw recruits: so that both sides now were able to bring into the field an equal force of about 2000 Europeans; but the English troops were in quality so much superior to the French, that if this long and obstinately contested war had now rested on the decision of the sword, there is no doubt but that the French would soon have been reduced to ask for peace on much less advantageous terms than the presidency of Madrass were obliged to accede to, in obedience to the orders they now received from Europe. Mr. Godeheu himself was sensible of this disparity, and dreading at the same the advantages which the English might derive from their squadron, he shewed a moderation in his proposals sufficient to induce Mr. Saunders to agree to a suspension of arms, before the terms of the treaty were adjusted. The allies on both sides were included in this suspension, which was proclaimed at Madrass, Pondicherry, Tritchinopoly, and in all other places on the coast of Coromandel, where the English and