Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/722

698 horse pushed to the river, and were ferried over to the town under the guns of St. Thomas' redoubt. To prevent such attempts in future, 50 Europeans, with a company of Sepoys, were stationed and retrenched on the ship of sand on the sea-shore, opposite to the bar of the river.

By this time the waters of the Panar were run off, and, as the troops at Ratlagramon with Captain Fletcher were deemed sufficient to oppose what the enemy had at Gingee, Captain Preston, with the main body of his command, marched away from Villaporum to attack Elavanasore, to which the officer at Thiagar sent a reinforcement, chiefly of black troops; but after Elavanasore was invested did not advance to its relief. The only guns fit for battery with Preston's division, were two field twelve-pounders, which are too slight against strong defences; but, as the last thing which is done in country forts is to repair them, a breach was easily made, and the garrison capitulated at discretion, although they were 11 Europeans, 19 Topasses, and 400 Sepoys, with three field-pieces besides the guns of the fort. Preparations had for some time been making at Madrass to convert the blockade of Pondicherry into a regular attack; and on the 16th, the Admiral Watson, a ship of 500 tons, laden with all kinds of stores, arrived, and anchored off the north redoubt, and the massoolas of Cuddalore repaired thither to unload her. On the 18th, Mr. Call, the chief engineer, arrived in the camp, to conduct the trenches.

There were remaining in Pondicherry about 50 horses belonging to the cavalry, for which no forage could be procured either within or without the walls; and, as the grain they consumed was so much taken from the sustenance of the garrison, Mr. Lally resolved to send them with the best riders to Thiagar. Colonel Coote received intelligence of the intention, but not of the time. At two o'clock in the morning of the 21st, 200 grenadiers, with the horsemen, passed the river on rafts, near the bar, opposite to the retrenched guard on the spit of sand, from which the Europeans had been withdrawn, and only the Sepoys were remaining; on whom the