Page:Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan.djvu/125

Rh gadi Pass. The ascent from this to Haidargarh at the top of the ghát, a distance of about eight miles, is tremendously steep, rough, and stony. Great boulders obstruct progress, with here and there a piece of slippery pavement in the worst parts of the defile. One gigantic rock is called the 'Áné Jerí,' from a tradition that an elephant was thence precipitated over the precipice. Modern skill has made this and several others of the old Mysore passes practicable for carts. At the time referred to, although thousands of bullocks yearly traversed it, the natural difficulties were so great, that had it been resolutely defended, Matthews could not possibly have reached the summit. But Colonel Macleod, who had joined him from Panniáni, had in his small detachment His Majesty's 42nd regiment, to whom from early associations hills and rocks were doubtless no serious obstacle. These gallant men, followed by the native troops, carried at the point of the bayonet one breastwork after another with little loss, although some of the batteries were armed with numerous guns, and defended by thousands of the enemy.

Bednúr fortress was at this time governed by Shekh Ayáz or Haiyát Sáhib, a Náir of Malabar, who had been forcibly converted to Islám, and for whom Haidar had an extraordinary affection on account of his fidelity and trustworthiness. Tipú, however, resenting this partiality, had a personal dislike to him. and had sent orders to supersede him in his post. But before his successor, Lutf Alí Bég,