Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/526

502 of Timery, who had none, offered likewise to sell their forts. Timery, from its distance, was not deemed worth the purchase; but the reputation of Arcot, and the communication with it by Covrepauk, induced the Presidency to accept the terms of these forts, although costly. But the Sepoys at Arcot, when the day of execution approached, confessed that they could not succeed; and a few days after 200 Europeans were sent into the fort from Vandiwash, but not, as it seemed, from any suspicion of the plot. However, their march stopped the bargain with Covrepauk. Narrain Saustry, the Morattoe officer, whom Abdul wahab had driven from Tripetty, took up his residence an Carcambaddy, a town in the hills, 15 miles distant, belonging to a petty Polygar, subject to a greater called the Matlaver, with whose assistance he raised forces, mostly such as were to be found in those wilds; and in the night of the 30th of June, by a bye-path in the mountain of Tripetty, got possession of the temple on the summit. The troops maintained by the renter, and two companies of Sepoys with Ensign Wilcox, were in the town below, which commands the usual path of the pilgrims to the pagoda. Narrain Saustry therefore waited for another force, which the Matlaver was to send; when one from the rock, and the other from the plain, were to surprize the town. They accordingly made the attack on the 9th of July at four in the morning; and, after skirmishing an hour, were beaten off, with the loss of 20 men killed and wounded; but the Morattoes still kept possession of the pagoda. A few days after, the town was reinforced by the Presidency of Madrass, with three companies of Sepoys, 15 Europeans, and a small gun. None but Indians, and they of the better castes, are permitted to ascend the hill on which the pagoda stands; for the Bramins pretend, that if the summit should be trodden by forbidden feet, all the virtue of the pagoda in the remission of sins would be lost, until restored by an immense purification. Not apprized of this creed, the Sepoys sent by the Presidency were as usual a mixture of Mahomedans and various castes of Indians, so that out of the six hundred, only 80 were worthy to mount to the assault: and the Europeans were utterly excluded. The renter