Page:Sir Thomas Munro and the British Settlement of the Madras Presidency.djvu/60

 52 SIR THOMAS MUNRO

' I am so little pleased with the peace, that I cannot without difficulty bring myself either to talk or write of it. When hostilities ceased, Tipu had no place above the Ghats from Gurramkonda to Seringa- patam. Besides the former of these forts, he had Gooty, Bellary, and Chitaldi'iig; but all either so distant from the scene of action, or so weakly garrisoned, as to give him no benefit from holding them. He had likewise Krishnagiri, in the Baramahal, which was, however, at this time, of no consequence in the operations of the war, because its garrison was not strong enough to attack convoys coming from the Karnatik, and because the Peddanaididurgum Pass, in the neighbourhood of Ambiir, being repaired, all convoys, after the month of September, took that road as the most direct to the army. He had lost the greatest part of his troops by death or desertion in the attack of his lines, and he himself had lost his haughtiness, his courage, and almost every quality that distiuguished him, but his cruelty, which he continued to exercise every day on many of the principal officers of his government, particularly Brahmans, on the most idle suspicions. The remains of his infantry were in the fort, and his cavalry on the glacis. He slept at night in the fort, in the great mosque, — for he never visited his palace after his defeat on the 6th ; and during the day he stayed on the outside amongst his horsemen, under a private tent, from whence he observed, with a sullen despair, his enemies closing in upon him from every side — the