Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/399

Book V. Maphuze Khan had promised, but had neglected to supply; it was therefore determined to march away to Madura, where they arrived, accompanied by Maphuze Khan, on the 22d of May.

Colonel Heron stayed no longer here than was necessary to refresh the men and settle the garrison, in which he left a thousand Sepoys, under the command of Jemaul-saheb, an officer of some reputation, and next in rank to Mahomed Issoof. The army had now to pass one of the most difficult and dangerous defiles in the peninsula, situated in a country inhabited by Colleries, who had, ever since the departure of the army from Madura, threatened vengeance for the loss of their gods at Coilgoody, and had already given a specimen of their resentment by cutting off a party of Sepoys, which the commanding officer of Madura sent out to collect cattle. A Collery discovered them in the night lying fast asleep, without any sentinels, and immediately went and brought a number of his cast, who, coming upon them by surprize, stabbed every one of them. The defile, called the pass of Nattam, begins about twenty miles to the north of the city, and continues for six miles through a wood, impenetrable every where else, to all, excepting the wild beasts and Colleries to whom it belongs. The road of the defile is barely sufficient to admit a single carriage at a time, and a bank running along each side of it, renders it a hollow way: the wood is in most parts contiguous to the road, and even in such places where travellers have felled part of it, the eye cannot penetrate farther than twenty yards. The army quitted Madura on the 28th of May; a party was sent forward to take post at a mud fort called Volsynattam, near the entrance of the woods, where the rest joined them in the evening, and the whole passed the night here. The next morning at day-break they prepared to march through the defile: and it being reported that the Colleries had cut down many trees to obstruct the way, a detachment of Europeans, pioneers, and Sepoys, were sent forward under the command of captain Lin, with orders to clear the pass of these incumbrances, and to scour the woods on each side with their fire; but captain Lin neither finding such obstructions as had been reported, nor even discovering the least appearance of an enemy, continued his