Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/311

Book IX. where they were to remain until the fate of Fort St. David should be decided; on which their own was to depend. The impatience of Mr. Lally's temper had already spread discontent through the settlement he was sent to govern. Not finding the same means and facilities for military operations as he had been accustomed to in the armies of Europe, he resolved to create them, as it were, in spite of nature. The different casts of the Indian religion being appropriated to specific and hereditary vocations, many of them are entirely prohibited from servile offices and hard labour; and of those allotted to such occupations, each must abide by that alone to which he was born. The husbandman would be dishonoured by employing his mattock excepting in the field he is to sow; and even lower races have their distinctions, insomuch that the cooley, who carries a burden on his head, will not carry it on his shoulder: distinctions likewise prevail amongst the soldiery, for the man who rides, will not cut the grass that is to feed his horse; nor at this time would the Sepoy dig the trench which was to protect him from a cannon-ball: hence the numerous train of followers and attendants which always accompanies a camp in India. Another embarrassment likewise arises from the want of horses proper for draught, which is but ill supplied by the feeble bullocks of the country; nor are sufficient numbers even of them properly trained to be purchased on emergency. Excepting in the siege of Pondiclierry by Mr. Boscawen, these defects had not been much felt in the hostilities between the two nations, because mutual; and six field-pieces generally decided a battle; two of battering cannon, the fate of a fortress: but another warfare was now to ensue, for the reduction of Fort St. David required a regular siege. The hurry with which Mr. Lally had obliged the first division to march against Cuddalore, left no time to collect the necessary number of coolies and other attendants in Pondicherry; on which he ordered the deficiency to be supplied by the Indian inhabitants of the town, a number of whom were pressed, and employed without distinction, in carrying burthens, and other such services. The violence created terror; the disgrace, indignation. Mr. Deleyrit, and the council, who still retained their functions, but under