Page:Sir Thomas Munro and the British Settlement of the Madras Presidency.djvu/55

 IVAN WITH TIPU 47

the plan of the Turkish janizaries, and follows with the greatest eagerness every principle of European tactics. He has even gone so far as to publish a book for the use of his officers, a copy of which is now in my possession, containing, besides the evolutions and manoeuvres usually practised in Europe, some of his own invention, together with directions for marching, encamping, and fighting ; and he is, with all his extra- ordinary talents, a furious zealot in a faith which founds eternal happiness on the destruction of other sects.

' An opportunity for humbling an enemy so danger- ous, and so implacable, has now appeared ; and had w^e been in the state of readiness for action which good policy demanded of us, one army might have entered the Coimbatore country and another sat down before Bangalore, almost before he could have opposed us. But so far from this, no army is yet likely to assemble ; and it was with much difficulty that Colonel Musgrave prevailed on the Governor to send the 36th regiment, two battalions of sepoys, one regiment of cavalry, and a company of artillery, to Trichinopoli. But the troops there, even when joined by this detachment, will not form an army that will be able to act oflfensively.

' Our operations will be still farther impeded by the reference which it will, most likely, be judged expedient to make to Bengal, before we proceed on an offensive war. The public look impatiently for the arrival of 1, and seem to be sanguine in their

' Probably Lord Cornwall is is referred to.