Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/523

Book XI. supreme command in India, when they had it in their power to have employed an officer of such approved and successful services as Mr. Bussy. As soon as the main body of the French army arrived at Pondicherry, 60 Europeans were sent to Kariral; against which place, from its distance and situation on the sea-shore, although a regular fortification, Mr. Lally always apprehended a descent from the English squadron. Another party was prepared to attack Kistnarow, whose ravages had greatly impaired the revenues expected from the adjacent districts; but did not take the field until the 24th, which gave time to Captain Joseph Smith, at Tritchinopoly, to send three companies of Sepoys, under the command of Hunterman, the serjeant-major of the garrison, who arrived at Thiagar before the French party; which thereupon returned to Trivadi: where they remained waiting for detachments until they were strengthened to 200 Europeans, 1500 Sepoys, 40 Hussars, 500 black horse, and eight guns, and where likewise joined by the matchlocks and peons of the French districts: when, by forced marches, they suddenly invested Elavanasore on the 5th of July; and took it by assault on the 11th. Kistnarow himself was in Thiagar; his gallantry, and the importance of the place, which protected all the districts southward toward Tritchinopoly, determined Captain Smith to make an effort for their preservation, which the strength of his garrison could ill afford. Forty Europeans, with three guns, and six companies of Sepoys, marched under the command of Lieutenant Raillard, a Swiss, and before they reached Volcondah were joined by 1000 horse, which the Nabob had levied since his arrival at Tritchinopoly, intending to employ them in the Madura and Tinivelly countries, which he expected would have been left to his management. Kistnarow, on hearing of the march of Raillard's detachment, came out of Thiagar with all his horse, and some Sepoys, in the night of the 12th, and the next day joined him at Volcondah. Serjeant Hunterman, with the rest of the three companies of Sepoys he had brought, and what foot Kistnarow usually kept in Thiagar, remained to defend it, until his return with the reinforcement. At