Page:Our Indian Army.djvu/220

196 continued co-operation of the Mahrattas was purchased by a loan of a hundred and fifty thousand pounds; the means of making this advance being secured by stopping the commercial investment of dollars in transit from England to China. This important preliminary being arranged, Purseram Bhow, with his army, and a detachment of Bombay troops, proceeded by Sera, to commence a series of operations in the north-west. The greater part of the Nizam's cavalry were to operate in the north-east. The army of Lord Cornwallis was to be interposed between the enemy and the Company's territories; as well for the protection of the latter as for the convenience of bringing forward supplies for reducing such of the intermediate fortresses as might be necessary, and for establishing a chain of tenable posts from Madras to Seringapatam, by which the transit of supplies might be facilitated when the army should be called to assemble before the enemy's capital.

The first movement of Lord Cornwallis was in a south-eastern direction to Oussoor, which, on his approach, the garrison evacuated and blew up. A train had been laid for the magazine, intended to explode after the entry of the English troops; but, by a happy accident, it did not take effect. Here again the perfidy and cruelty of Tippoo were brought conspicuously to notice. Three Englishmen had been confined in Oussoor, one of whom, named Hamilton, having given up all hopes of recovering his freedom, had reconciled his mind to the circumstances in which he was placed, and apparently contemplated Oussoor as his final abode, as, in other instances, the fall of Bangalore had led to the murder of these unhappy men, whose graves were now pointed out to their indignant countrymen.

The capture of other forts of minor importance followed that of Oussoor, and in September Nundidroog was invested. This fortress, which is situated on a granite rock of tremendous height, lies about thirty miles north from Bangalore, and is the capital of a considerable dis-