This was no sooner done than the Commander-in-Chief of the English (Lord Cornwallis) before day­break in the morning advanced and attacked the bat­teries, and took two of them in the most gallant man­ner. General Meadows also with a large body of troops made a fierce assault on the Hill of Karighat. The Sipahdár commanding there, however, whose name was Syud Humíd, poured forth from the top of the hill such vollies of musketry and such a fire from his guns, that from the shock, the assailants were completely scattered and notwithstanding the exertions they made to take the hill, obtained no advantage, and after the destruction of thousands of their men they were obliged to retire:— at this period two regiments of Europeans marched to attack the encampment of Hussein Khán Khulíl Sipahdár, which was pitched between the hill and the fort (of Seringaputtun). The brave Hussein Khán kept up a heavy fire from his guns until they arrived near, when he left his guns in the rear and formed line in front of the enemy, planting his feet firmly on the ground of his honour and duty, and in fighting and repelling his enemies he nobly distinguished himself:— Verses,— “Behold on each side men keen for the fight,”— “their talons sharp for bloodshed.”— “With the blood spilled, so much life passed into the earth,” (from the bodies of the slain) “that the earth itself received life.”— “On both sides the battle was long sus­tained,”— “the knots of contention were not unravelled.” In short with the fiery musket, the bayonet, spear, and sword, he did justice to his courage and character, and the Khán Khulíl being wounded was at length taken prisoner by the enemy.

His men also, with the pride and devotion of Islám, after fighting bravely, one after another drank the cup of martyrdom. But to return;— for fifteen or twenty days the Commander-in-Chief of the English army was sedulously occupied in watering the river bed of his labour,* and schemed and devised number­less modes of taking the Fort of Seringaputtun, but it was all in vain, and he became more and more involved in difficulties, and to increase them still further, ensued the total want of provisions, the cries of famine, arising from all parts of his camp; and in addition, to the total deficiency of wood and forage, a seer (a measure weighing a little more than a pound) of rice, was sold nominally at the price of four rupees, but no one ever saw a grain, and three rupees was the price of a seer of flour of Khush Khushí-Soork’h, that is Raggee, (a small grain growing in the south of India). The price of a seer of clarified butter was eight rupees, and a hoon was also paid for a chicken, but even at that price they were not procurable. The Euro­peans could not support this scarcity of food, and therefore, according to the orders of their officers the gun bullocks were killed and their flesh served to sustain their strength for some time,— when, however, the Commander-in-Chief saw the signs of impending ruin in his army, and heard of the plunder of a large convoy coming from Mala­bar under a strong escort and which was cap­tured by the Kuzzaks of Gházi Khán Bede, and the Sillahdárs of Syud Sáhib; the escort put to the sword, and the stores, &c. all converted to the service of the Sultán; he fell into deep thought and reflection, and after the assembly and sanction of a council of war, he determined to take care of himself and his army, and to that end buried all his guns in the earth, and burned their carriages, and next shot all his weak or useless horses, and then marched on his return by the route of Kurri Koort.

The Sultán when he became aware of this move­ment, determined to pass a joke on the Com­mander-in-Chief, and therefore, despatched five or six benghis or baskets of fruit under the escort of a party of rocket men, addressed to the Governor-General’s* Persian Secretary:— some of the officers of the English army understanding the joke, or the inference to be drawn therefrom, sent the fruit bearers back with a present and an answer to the effect that their Persian writer was not then present with the army. In short the Commander-in-Chief marched with the greatest difficulty, and the light guns which were indispensable to the army, were dragged along the road by the soldiers, and every day from day-light to the evening, they marched only about four miles, and although at witnessing the miserable state of their army, some of the Sultán’s faithful Amírs and Kháns repre­sented to him that this was the time to attack them, and that if he would give orders they would pursue the English army, and cast the stone of dispersion and defeat among them, and by their prowess bring them with their hands and feet bound before him; still, his foresight and intelli­gence did not perceive any advantages in sepa­rating his brave army from himself, and, therefore, he would not consent to it. The Sipahsalar of the English, therefore, moved on gently without molestation or fear towards Ootridroog, the Killadár of which hill fort, seeing the multitudes of troops brought against him, suffered his courage to ooze out at his fingers’ ends, and with the keys of the fort went to meet the Commander-in-Chief, who received him with great favour, and found a large quantity of stores and a great number of cattle there, of which having taken possession, he gave some relief to his suffering army. In fact three goats might be purchased for one rupee in their bazaar, and the famished people of his camp, being unable to support the pangs of hunger oppressing them, subsisted entirely on the flesh of goats and bullocks, and this diet gave them a flux or dysen­tery, and many died;— they could not, however, obtain any kind of grain,— the Sipahsalar, or General, therefore, after encamping there two days and procuring some bullocks to draw his guns, marched towards Sondah Kupeh, where he arrived after a month’s march,* (a mistake here apparently) and where Purusram joined him with stores and pro­visions, and the English army was relieved by him from the miseries of famine, for the Mahratta sent his own Bunjaras to the English camp, and they opening their stores of grain by his orders, in one day caused such a change in the state of affairs, that two seers of rice were sold to all for one rupee, and four or five seers of jowar* for the same amount, and consequently half the scarcity was removed when Colonel Read, who had arrived at Bangalore with an immense supply of stores and provisions, despatched thence abundance of grain of all kinds, carts of arrack and bread, with fowls, ducks, geese, sheep and cattle, and for this he was highly complimented by the Commander-in-Chief, who in reward for his good and faithful service, appointed him to the collectorship of the revenue at Bangalore, Huskote, Kolar, Moorwakul and Hussoor, with the political agency of the Poligars of that part of the country.

The Commander-in-Chief after this, commis­sioned and despatched several officers with strong bodies of troops to take the forts of Makri Droog, and Nundi Gurh, and in consequence Colonel Gowdie with three battalions of native infantry and one regiment of Europeans, besieged Nundi Gurh and battered it on all sides. Colonel Read also marched from Kolar with six hundred Sipahees to attack the same fort, and he doubtless used the utmost exertion in its capture, for notwithstanding he received a musket ball in his thigh, he took it in eighteen days. On the night of the assault, however, General Meadows went down to the trenches or breaching battery and promised the Europeans that all the plunder they took should be free; and likewise all the women who fell into their hands,— (for by the mis-management of Lootf Alí Beg, the Bukhshi there, a great number of men and women were allowed to be shut up in the fort), the General then gave orders for the assault. The storming party immediately moved off, and at one attack mounted and covered the hill, and took the fort, and fearlessly possessed themselves of the property and women of the garrison,— thousands of women, therefore, were violated,* some of them to preserve their virtue and religion threw themselves from the top of the hill down a precipice to the bottom, and thus sacrificed their lives to preserve their honour. The Bukhshi before mentioned and Sultán Khán, the Killadár of the fort, were made prisoners. The fort of Makri Droog was also taken by capitulation after a siege of three days.