Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/327

Book IX Dutch government at Negapatam to supply his wants of money, ammunition, and provisions; who, awed by his force, furnished him with 20,000 pounds weight of gunpowder, and promised to assist his commissaries in purchasing whatsoever their territory could supply, but declared themselves unable to lend any money, not having enough for their own use. The Danish settlement of Tranquebar, from the same dread of his violences, promised the same assistances, and furnished six small field-pieces, with 10,000 weight of gunpowder.

The army marched from Nagore on the 28th, and, having proceeded six miles, halted at a considerable pagoda called Kiveloor; where Mr. Lally, believing the report of those who meant only to please him, imagined the bramins to be very rich, and that the images they worshipped were of gold; in this persuasion, he ransacked and dug the houses, dragged the tanks, and took the idols out of the chapels, but no treasures were found; and the idols proved to be only of brass. The bramin returning from the king met Mr. Lally at Kiveloor, and offered the usual complimentary presents, but no terms of accommodation adequate to Mr. Lally's expectations, who therefore dismissed him without accepting the presents, and the next day marched ten miles farther to Trivalore, where stands the most famous pagoda in the country. Here the army found as much paddy laid up in granaries as would have supplied them with rice for three months, but for want of the means to beat it out, could scarcely procure from it sufficient for the meal of the day. All the bramins had abandoned the pagoda, but some were afterwards discovered prying and asking questions in the camp, probably from anxiety concerning their temples and divinities; but Mr. Lally judged them to be spies employed by the king, and rashly ordered six of them to be executed, who were blown off from the muzzles of the field-pieces. As soon as the French troops arrived at Karikal, the general Monacjee advanced from the city of Tanjore and encamped within ten miles of Trivalore, with 2500 horse and 5000 Sepoys, disciplined as well as they could be without the direction of Europeans. This was half the force of the kingdom. The king on the first alarm had solicited aid from the Nabob, the English presidency, Tritchinopoly, from