Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/644

620 along the beach until they came to the river, when they continued under the bank unperceived by the pioneers employed in constructing the battery.

The cover afforded by the pettah determined the attack to be carried on against the north face of the fort; and the greater extent of the esplanade to the east, which is 500 yards (whereas to the west it is interrupted by the curve of the river at 300) gave the preference of the enfilade from the east, which of consequence determined the breach to be in the north-east bastion, and on its north face. Accordingly, three batteries were marked out in the pettah, one to breach, and one on each hand to take off the defences; in the battery to the east, two of the guns enfiladed the north line in its whole length, and the other two plunged into the opposite ravelin, and across into the ravelin on the south: so that every part of the fort would be laid under fire. Sailors were landed with the heavy artillery from the ships, and assisted in drawing them, and in the other services usually allotted to bullocks and coolies; for all the neighbouring villages were deserted, and supplied neither man nor beast; and no tidings arrived of the Captain Joseph Smith's detachment, nor of the assistance expected from the garrison of Tritchinopoly; and the king of Tanjore avoided all correspondence with the armament.

Captain Joseph Smith received the orders of the presidency on the 25th, the day he was setting out with the Nabob from Volcondah, against Thiagar; he immediately turned his march to Karical; and the Nabob, unwilling to remain with only his own troops in the middle of the Carnatic, determined to march with the detachment. The nearest road leading from Volcondah towards Karical falls upon the Coleroon, 30 miles N. N. W. of the city of Tanjore. Having crossed the river, which is there spacious, you continue to Combaconum, which stands five miles farther, on the bank of the first arm of the Caveri; and beyond this is another arm to cross, before you join the road leading east to the sea-shore: much of the ground between the rivers is sunk in marshes, and the better ground is overflowed in rice-fields, without any continued road, which greatly retard