Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/534

510 received their pay, of which many months was in arrears. Their officers, by furnishing their own money, and engaging their honour for more, brought them back, excepting 30, who dispersed about the country: but this defection, which the cause exempted from rigorous punishment, shook the discipline of the whole army.

From this view of circumstances, the Presidency of Madrass resolved to leave something to chance in the extremities, rather than diminish the superiority, which their force had lately acquired in the center of the province, by the reinforcements arrived from England, and the enemy's detachment to the southward; and determined to employ this advantage immediately against Vandiwash, the most important of the enemy's stations between Madrass and Pondicherry. Accordingly 300 Europeans, with two twelve-pounders, and all the stores necessary for the attack, were sent to Chinglapet; but whilst on the road, and before the main body had moved from Conjeveram, arrived the Revenge, on the night of the tenth of September, with important intelligence from the squadron. The Dutch at Negapatam, pretending that their armament from Batavia required the service of all their massoolah boats, would spare none to water the English ships; to procure which, Mr. Pococke sailed on the 20th with the squadron for Trinconamalée, where common boats can ply to the shore. They anchored there on the 30th, but at the mouth of the harbour; and the Revenge was sent forward to cruize off the Friar's Hood. On the 2d of September, at ten in the morning, some ships were discovered to the s. E. Soon after came down the Revenge, chased and fired upon by one of the strangers, which denoted them to be the long-expected enemy. The English squadron weighed immediately, and could not get within cannon-shot of them by sun-set; but perceived that the number and strength of the ships greatly exceeded the force they had met the year before. Mr. D' Aché having left the coast, as we have seen, on the 3d of September, arrived, after thirty days sail, at the Isle of France, and found in the port a reinforcement of three men of war, under the command of Mr. D' Eguille, an officer of experience and reputation,