Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/728

704 days afterwards, they were joined by a party of 100 European infantry whom, to alleviate the consumption of provisions, Mr. Lally had sent out of Pondicherry in the two vessels which sailed on the 2d and 3d of the month, and escaped to Tranquebar; from whence, headed by the bishop of Hallicarnassus, they marched to escort him to the camp of Vizvazipunt at Cudapanatam, with whom the bishop was empowered to conclude the negociation. They proceeded to Combaconum, by the same road as the Nabob and Major Joseph Smith had come to Karical, and received no molestation in their journey through the country of Tanjore. From Combaconum, they crossed the Coleroon, and then passed between Volcondah and Thiagar, out of the reach of Preston's troops; but 10 or 12 of them deserted, and travelled to Tritchinopoly, where they offered to serve, but were not enlisted; because Captain Smith had at this time discovered a conspiracy of the French prisoners to rise and overpower the garrison; in which the number of Europeans did not exceed 100, and most of them were invalids or foreigners; whereas the prisoners were 500; being the collection of all that had been taken at Karical, Chillambrum, and Verdachilum, by Colonel Monson, and in the different actions at Seringham and it's districts, by the two Smiths from Tritchinopoly. The King of Mysore, not thoroughly convinced that his protestations of good-will to the English would induce them to restore Caroor, sent a large body of troops to the confines of its territory, in order to second the terms of his negociation by the appearance of renewing hostilities, if not accommodated; and other troops proceeded to reinforce those at Dindigul; from whence the governor on their arrival marched, with 1000 horse, 2000 Sepoys, as many common peons, and some cannon, against Agarpatty, the nearest and last of the forts, which the troops of Madura had taken, but having left it only 40 Sepoys, it surrendered on the 4th day of the attack. From hence the Mysoreans marched against Narasingapore, another of the forts, six miles farther, which they likewise battered for four days, when they were attacked themselves by a strong body detached from