Page:Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan.djvu/196

192 minor posts in the Báramaháls, had reached on March 9 Kellamangalam in Mysore. It was joined there by the Haidarábád contingent under Colonel Wellesley, and proceeded to an encampment near Bangalore. The progress made by it was very slow, owing to the multitude of camp-followers and cattle, which greatly impeded the march. Tipú had taken up a position near Maddúr, half-way between Bangalore and Seringapatam, but Lord Harris having determined to take the southerly route by Kánkánhalli, Tipú proceeded to encounter him near Malvalli, ten miles west of the Shimsha river. On March 27 the British army marched to this place and found the Mysore troops drawn up two miles from their intended encampment. Our advanced pickets were soon threatened by large bodies of cavalry, and when a corps was sent up to their support a general action ensued. Though Tipú's horse made a gallant attack, and his finest infantry advanced firmly against the 33rd regiment, they were charged with the bayonet and driven back in confusion. The English cavalry completed their rout, and destroyed nearly all of them. Tipú then withdrew his guns and troops, having lost 1,000 men killed and wounded in the engagement, while the British loss was trifling.

The mistake of Tipú in supposing that the British army would take the direct road from Bangalore to Seringapatam, and attack that place from the north, as Lord Cornwallis had done in 1792, was of immense service to Lord Harris. Under this anticipation,