Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/752

728 All the solicitations of Mr. Louet were of no avail, when his allies saw the English troops taking the field, and were apprized of their numbers; they did not send a man; and before day-break the next morning, he dispatched a letter to Mr. Hodges, the chief of Tellicherry, proposing terms of capitulation, on which Major Monro was ordered not to commence hostilities. Agents sent to explain doubts and objections, continued going to and fro until the morning of the 13th, when the capitulation was signed. It was agreed, that all the European military should be transported at the expence of the English, either to the island of Bourbon, or to Europe, and when landed there, to be free. The effects, artillery, and military stores, belonging to the French company, were to be surrendered, but the effects and possessions of individuals were to be preserved to them entire, without molestation in the use. The free exercise of the Roman religion was to be permitted as before the surrender; the priests on no account were to be vexed, nor the churches or religious edifices impaired. The forts to the northward of Tellicherry were to be given up on the same conditions as Mahé, and the factory at Calicut was to continue unmolested under the usual neutrality of that town: ample honours of war were allowed to the garrison. Five hundred men under the commad of Major Peers marched into Mahé at noon; and soon after, the garrison were escorted with their honours to Tellicherry. A detachment was then prepared under the command of Major Monro, to take in the forts to the northward, which it was suspected might dispute the terms of capitulation provided for them. The news of the surrender of Mahé arrived at Madrass on the 3d of March.

Captain Stephen Smith, as soon as encamped before Gingee, summoned Macgregor, the commanding officer, who answered, that if he had brought one hundred thousand men, the forts would not be reduced in three years. The troops encamped to the east opposite to the outward pettah on the plain, which, although it had a mud wall, was of much less defence than the inward town, which stands on higher ground, nearly in the center of the triangular valley, extending between the three mountains, The valley