Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/698

674 the time the battery opened, the garrison had lavished away all their powder, and capitulated. The loss sustained in the attack was only three men wounded. The next day Captain Smith, with 400 of the Sepoys, and two cohorns, passed the Caveri to reduce Iloor, a fort situated on the other bank, ten miles beyond Pudicotah; but the garrison evacuated it on his appearance. From hence he marched against Caroor, the principal object of his expedition.

Caroor is situated 50 miles west of Tritchinopoly, and stands on a plain five miles to the south of the Caveri, but near another river, which falls into the Caveri at that distance to the north. The river of Caroor was the ancient boundary between the dominions of Tritchinopoly and Mysore; and this conterminal situation, under the security of a strong fort, and its rule over a rich and extensive district, had formerly rendered it a place of great mercantile resort and opulence, and it still continued populous with some wealthy inhabitants. The river continues at the distance of 800 yards opposite to the south side of the fort, and 1000 yards beyond, turns short, and strikes directly north: along this part, after the turning, and close to the bank, extends the pettah, which likewise has the other course of the river on the south side; but not so near; the extent of the pettah along the river, from south to north, is 1000 yards, and recedes from it about 500, so that the esplanade between the pettah and the fort is 500 yards across. This ground is intersected by two water-courses derived from the river to the south, one of which passes close to the west side of the pettah, and turns along the north-side until it rejoins the river to the east, and thus serves as a ditch on the w. and N.; the other water-course lies midway between the fort and the pettah, and stretches to the north much farther out into the plain. The whole of the pettah is inclosed by a mud-wall with towers, but of little defence.

The fort is built of stone, and is nearly a square of 600 yards. It has square towers in the curtain, and bastions at the four angles, behind each of which stands a cavalier, or round tower of solid masonry, which rises ten feet higher than the bastion. The whole fort is surrounded by a dry ditch, of which the counterscarp is faced