An account of the advance of an army under the command of General Meadows to the aid of the Raja of Maliwar, and the battles fought between the English army and that of the Sultán;— the death of Boorhanuddín Sipahsalar, who was slain near the Fort of Sutti Mungul, the march of the Royal Standard towards the Payanghaut, and an account of the different victories gained about that time, 1205, Hijri.— A. D. 1790.

WHEN the conquering Sultán had completed the conquest of this country (Cochin, or Travancore,) he demanded tribute from the Poligar of Maliwar, and despatched a body of Kuzzaks to plunder and take possession of that woody country. The Poli­gar, therefore, trembling like a reed from fear of the Sultán’s sharp sword, now sought aid and redress from the Governor of Madras and General Meadows was appointed to oppose the Sultán, the destroyer of his enemies, and advanced to Nuthur Nuggur (Trichinopoly).

From that place, however, with the aid of the Poligar of Maliwar, who had assembled his army and was ready for action, he next marched for­ward by the route of Karoor to attack the Sultán. Accordingly, in the vicinity of Koimbetore and Sutti Mungal, he fell in with the advanced guard of the conquering army, and a sharp action fol­lowed, and from the clangour of the drums and trumpets, and the roar of the discharges of musketry, rockets, and cannon, the clamour of the day of resurrection arose from both armies, and the Kuz­zaks having surrounded the followers of the British army in the forest of Dindigul, after killing and wounding many, took prisoners some of the sol­diers with their women, muskets, and baggage, the latter tied in bundles on their heads. Among these were some Muhammadan women, who from want of shame and the fear of an hereafter, had gone aside from their religion, and had given up their impure bodies to the lust of men of other religions, (this refers to Europeans, I believe,) and they according to the orders of the Sultán were impaled. On this day, however, the troops of both armies after repelling the charges made by each other remained on equal terms, and in the evening the General taking up ground at the foot of the moun­tains encamped there.

The army of the Sultan, however, surrounded the General’s troops closely, and harassed them continually, by driving in their foraging parties, and stopping their supplies. The next day, the General marched on and took the small fort of Sutti Mungul (from which the Sultán had pre­viously withdrawn the garrison), and left two battalions there under the command of Major (Chalmers, or) Chambers. He halted at this place a short time, and then marched towards Koimbetore, at which place at that time the Sultán himself was encamped;— at hearing this news the Sultán, at the presumption of the general, was much excited, and with the whole of his army marched to meet him, and having taken up his ground for a regu­lar field engagement, remained ready for action. On that day, however, the general did not advance, but encamped on the banks of the river Bho­wani;* during this a body of English troops, which had been assembled at Seoram at first under the command of Colonel Kelly, lost its commanding officer, who died, and Colonel Maxwell, who had lately arrived from Bengal with five battalions of Native infantry, and a thousand Europeans, was appointed to command in his place, and with the subsidiary troops of the Poligars, that is the Poli­gars of Kalistri, Vinkutgiri, &c. advanced by the route of Rai Vellore, and Amboor Gurh, towards Koimbetore, and on the route leaving small gar­risons in Wanumbari and Tripatore, marched to the Ghaut, or pass of Tuppoor. The Sultán on being made acquainted with this movement, detached Syud Sáhib, Sipahsalar, to arrest the progress of that body of troops, and he himself fol­lowed with the same intention, and marched in the direction of Dhurumpoori. The aforesaid Sipah­salar, however, had no sooner made a forced march with his division, than the Colonel (Maxwell), who was marching on the road to Dhurumpoori, sud­denly countermarched and retired towards Gugungurh. Syud Ghuffar, therefore, with his Kuz­zaks preceding the army moved on, and near that place fell in with and attacked the advanced guard of the English force, and cut them off, taking prisoners one hundred and fifty troopers and two hundred infantry.

The Colonel, therefore, on that day, kept the woody and hilly ground, and on the next marched towards Kauveri Puttun; when, however, he saw the Sultán’s troops surrounding him on all sides, he kept close to the hilly country and marched in the direction of the Ghaut of Tippoor, and General Meadows proceeding by forced marches to join him, the two officers met at the foot of the Ghaut near Kaveripoor. At the period, however, of the junction of these officers, the faithful servants of the Sultán brought up their Kushoons between them, and displaying great bravery, obtained many advantages. The English officers also with their troops charged the victorious army and fought desperately until the Sultán himself, with his Assud Illáhi Kushoons, (or brigades) and artillery, vigor­ously attacked their rear and reduced them to such straights as left them no means or mode of escape.

The General, therefore, formed his army into a square, and taking his cattle and followers into the centre, marched by the route of Marpaich again towards Suttimungul:— in short, after the space of two or three months, in which the two armies had been continually doing all they could to dis­tress and destroy each other; the supplies and pro­visions of the English army were exhausted, and the days of scarcity shewed their faces,— the hope of further convoys of provisions or stores from any quarter now having vanished, the general with all his troops marched towards Trichinopoly. The victorious army, however, stopped his progress in the plain of Suttimungul, and so sur­rounded and so vigorously attacked him, that most of the officers (apparently the English), the lovers of justice and candour, expressed their astonish­ment at their valour. The keen sword and musket of the brave Mussulmans destroyed many of the infidels, and it went very near that a total defeat and dispersion had fallen upon that army, when night came on and the veil of darkness fell before the faces of the fearless combatants, and both armies drew back their hands from the fight, and the General conceiving that day’s march had been as difficult as if it had been on the tail of a serpent (alluding seemingly to the name of the road Mar­paich, but there is some difference in the MSS. here,) halted where he was for the night.