Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/762

738 money, and the distress for provisions. That the attempt to retake Vandivash, reduced Mr. Lally to the necessity of receiving battle, which as the English were seeking, he ought to have avoided; but that he had reason to expect greater industry and spirit in the artillery, officers, and engineers, who might have breached the place in half the time. Whether, after this battle, Pondicherry might have been better stored, or whether the provisions collected were injudiciously disposed of, would, after all witnesses, have remained a decision of doubt. The troops which arrived with Colonel Coote in November 1759, with his immediate activity in the reduction of Vandivash and Carangoly, brought the war nearly to an equality; which justified him in risquing the battle for the relief of Vandivash, although he fought, it with the inexplicit disapprobation of the Presidency in his pocket; but his dispositions had secured resources against mischance. Before this important success, the views of no one had extended to the reduction of Pondicherry: but instantly after, all were impressed with the firmest persuasion of this termination of the war. This fortunate confidence led to the most vigorous counsels. Nothing, it was reasoned, if all advantages are taken, can save Pondicherry, excepting the arrival of their squadron in force sufficient to cope with the English; or the lucky introduction of troops and money by divisions of their ships, if the whole do not venture: whatsoever is gained in the mean time will require so much effort to recover, should the enemy be reinforced; and if they are not, will be so much accomplished towards the ultimate object. The enterprizing sagacity of Colonel Coote lost no time in discovering and taking every advantage. The Presidency seconded his operations by the expedition to Karical, and in supplies to the field; the garrison of Trichinopoly by their activity; the detachment to the westward by its vigilance; the army by their zeal on all occasions. Colonel Coote, by constantly exposing his own person with the Sepoys, had brought them to sustain dangerous services, from which the Europeans were preserved. By this ceconomy, and the reinforcements from England and Bombay, if the armament so much announced had arrived, and landed a