Page:Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas.djvu/292

264 halt at Legeta, and send on two companies to dig wells between that and Keneh.

"The Sepoys at the stations may go and assist, and the two companies at Legeta should immediately begin between that and Keneh."

General Baird had decided to leave Kosseir for Keneh on the 27th June. On that day, however, he received despatches from Bombay informing him that Colonel Champagné's detachment would sail in six transports "in a few days," and that Colonel Wellesley was prevented by ill health from joining him.

A feeling of soreness had existed between General Baird and Colonel Wellesley since the date (5th May, 1799) on which the former had considered himself superseded by the latter in the command of Seringapatam. It is interesting, therefore, to read the manner in which an ill-feeling on the part of Colonel Wellesley had been effaced by personal contact with General Baird in Bombay.

"As I am writing on the subject," wrote Colonel Wellesley in a private letter dated Bombay, 9th April, "I will freely acknowledge that my regret at being prevented from accompanying you has been greatly increased by the kind, candid, and handsome manner in which you have behaved towards me; and I will confess as freely, not only that I did not expect such treatment, but that my wishes, before you arrived, regarding going upon such an expedition, were directly the reverse of what they are at this moment. I need not enter farther into this subject than to entreat that you will not attribute my stay to any other motive than that to which I have above