Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/697

Book XIII small guns, with much difficulty made a kind of breach which they stormed, and carried on the first day of August; and immediately began to repair and add better works, but had not compleated them before the troops of Dindigul were reinforced from Mysore, and taking the field encamped within sight of Battal Gunta, in which the troops of Madura had kept a garrison, but the main body lay without the walls. The equipment and departure of the troops which accompanied the Nabob into the Carnatic, and the subsequent assistances sent to Karical, had left the government and garrison of Tritchinopoly so bare of men, money, and stores, that Captain R. Smith could not undertake the expedition he had proposed against the Mysoreans, until all these wants were supplied, which depended intirely on his own resources, for although the Presidency and Colonel Coote approved and recommended to him the most active exertions against the Mysore territory, he received no assistance either of money from the one nor of troops from the other; so that the preparations necessary for the expedition prevented him from taking the field until the 6th of August. His force was 50 Europeans, with two guns, and four cohorns, 700 Sepoys from the garrison of Tritchinopoly; 600 horse, and 1000 Peons armed with match-locks, mostly sent by Tondiman, a few belonging to the Nabob, the rest to Tanjore; and 3000 Colleries from the neighbouring Polygars, who were content to serve on very slight stipend, in expectation of ample plunder in the fertile districts they were going to invade. This army proceeded along the southern bank of the Caveri, and on the 13th came before Pudicotah, a mud fort, situated on the bank of this river, about 40 miles to the west of Tritchinopoly, which, with other districts, the Nabob had ceded to the Mysoreans, when his allies, in the war of 1753. On their arrival, a report prevailed, that a large body of troops were marching from Seringapatam to Caroor. The garrison at Pudicotah, converting this news into hourly expectation of relief, stood on the defensive, and having three guns, obliged Captain Smith to raise a battery, which, having nothing but field-pieces to mount, would not have soon produced much effect: but, by