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56 enterprise was that Wood was recalled, Colonel Lang being sent to supersede him.

While these abortive attempts were being made to seize Bangalore, Haidar had sent his lieutenant Fazl Ullah Khán to Seringapatam to raise fresh levies of troops, with a view to retaliation on the British. When his preparations were complete, he despatched Fazl Ullah in November, 1768, with a large force down the Gajalhátti Pass to reduce the smaller posts held by the enemy, following himself a month later with the greater part of his army. The resistance encountered by Fazl Ullah Khán was so slight that he had little difficulty in occupying the places referred to, while Haidar, entering the Coimbatore district, seized Karúr and marched towards Erode. On his way thither he was encountered by Captain Nixon, who was under the belief that he was opposed only by Fazl Ullah Khán. Overwhelmed by the immense army launched at him by Haidar, who was in command of 12,000 cavalry and a large body of infantry, Nixon was completely defeated, scarcely a man escaping death or wounds, while Haidar advanced triumphantly on Erode and compelled its surrender. The British officer second in command had capitulated at Vaniambádi in the previous year on condition that he would not serve again during the war, and Haidar, taking advantage of this undoubted breach of honour, sent the whole garrison, as well as that of Káveripuram, which fell shortly afterwards, to languish in prison at Seringapatam. Haidar had now reconquered all the districts