Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/122

116 as soon as Mr. Rumbold was gone, and then declared he 'intended not only to maintain the city, but likewise to recover the whole country for Maphuze Cawn. These resolutions were not unanimously approved, but the dissenters were by far the smaller number; and letters of invitation were immediately dispatched to all the Polygars, to Hyder Naig the Mysore general, and to the King of Travancore. A few days after, Berkatoolah and Nabey Cawn Catteck went with 500 horse to the Pulitaver's place. The commander Mahomed Issoof, on receiving the summons of Mr. Rumbold, had returned from the districts he was visiting to Tinivelly; where leaving as before 1000 Sepoys, he proceeded with the rest, about 1800, towards Madura. The renter Moodilee, naturally timorous, resolved to accompany the greater force, and, besides his usual retinue, was attended by 100 good horse, which he had lately levied. They arrived on the 16th of December at Gangadorum, where Mahomed Issoof hearing of Mr. Rumbold's departure from Madura, halted to observe the motions of the enemy, and remained there until he received information that Nabey Cawn Catteck and Berkatoolah had passed to the pulitaver's, on which he proceeded to Chevelpetore, and encamped there, in order to awe the Polygars in this part of the country from joining the enemy.

During the march Moodilee sent one of his relations, named Algapa, to negotiate a reconciliation with the Pulitaver, and offer some districts as the fee of his alliance. The Pulitaver, who never refused or kept his word on any occasion, sent an agent with Algapa to the camp at Chevelpetore, and at the same time sent his troops to join Berkatoolah and Nabey Cawn Catteck. The agent, under the usual pretext of doing honour to his embassy, was accompanied by two or three hundred Colleries. Mahomed Issoof entirely disapproved of the intercourse, as he knew the Pulitaver's character, and that some of his people were at this very time plundering to the westward of Tinivelly. Unfortunately, during this mood of indignation, five of the agentte Colleries were taken, stealing horses and oxen belonging to the camp, and being brought to Mahomed Issoof, he immediately put them to death, by blowing them off from the mouth of a cannon: a sanguinary execution,