When the English battalions left this place, they joined some of the Kullers of Tondiman with their force, and surrounded and assaulted the fort of Shahgota. The officer who commanded in the fort was a Soubadár, of the name of Shaikh Humeed, and he, with a garrison of about two hun­dred men, manned the walls and towers;— and, not suffering himself to be frightened by his ene­mies, defended himself with great spirit, pouring such a heavy fire of musketry, with all kinds of fire­works or missiles, from the top of the walls, that the assailants could not stand it, but fled in con­fusion. Having collected and reformed their men, the defeated officers were about to try a second assault, when, all at once, the sound of the kettle-drums, and trumpets of the Prince’s army, reached their ears, and they became aware that a reinforce­ment had arrived. They, therefore, made haste to retire, under cover of the hills and jungle, to Sheo Gunga. The Prince that day encamped before the fort; and, after bestowing on the Soubadár a thousand commendations in reward for his gallant conduct, made him a present of a pair of gold armlets, a puduk, or gorget, and a jowmala,* or a string of pearls, and took him on with his army.

In this state of things, news arrived from the Pass or fort of Munniar Koodi, that one night a party of English troops attacked that fort, the garrison being absent on a night expedition to collect cattle and grain, in the towns depending on Sheo Gunga; and that the Náík of the fort, with twenty soldiers, and a few women, belonging to the soldiers and residing in the fort, when they became aware of the arrival of the enemy, not knowing they were English troops, and supposing them Kullurs of that neigh­bourhood, shut the gate, and prepared to receive them. All the women therefore assembled, and mixing cow-dung and water, heated pots and kettles full of this mixture over the fire, until the assailants had placed ladders against the wall and mounted, when the women, all at once raising a great shout, discharged the pots full of this boiling hot water on the heads of the storming party; while large pieces of stone, which had been laid in order on the wall, were also without ceremony cast over on them. On the other side, the little garrison gallantly pressed forward to repel the enemy, and pierced the breasts and heads of many of the assailants with balls and arrows, so that they all at once took to flight. Hearing the report of muskets from the fort, the foot soldiers of the garrison, who had gone forth to forage, or make a night attack, now hastened to return, and for the honour of the Hyduri state, fell briskly upon the enemy’s rear. The storming party, being therefore hopeless of success, retreated.

The Prince was highly pleased at this exploit, but withdrew the garrison; and, having sent for them, he gave to each of the foot soldiers, as a reward for their bravery, a silver bracelet, or armlet, and to the Náík, a pair of gold armlets, and then marched towards Turwur Paleh. On the road, intelligence reached him, that the Poligar of Tur­wur Paleh, with his own troops, two hundred English soldiers, and the servants of Itebar Khan, the Collector of revenue, had marched from Trichinopoly to his own district; and, having collected much grain and cattle there, were returning again to Trichinopoly. On hearing this, the Prince immediately made a forced march in that direction, and came upon the heads of this detachment like a thick cloud, just as their officers were preparing to cross a deep river, and were sending over their bag­gage in boats, and baskets. The Prince instantly gave orders to attack and plunder them; and the victorious troops rained upon them on all sides such a storm of arrows, rockets, musket balls, &c. that the officers of the enemy only, with the greatest difficulty, rowing hard in their boats, reached the opposite bank in safety. The soldiers threw them­selves upon the rushing waters, like bubbles, and strove hard to escape, by striking out their hands, and feet, and, while they were in that condition, some of Hydur’s brave troops, who could swim, cast themselves into this death-like torrent, shout­ing like thunder, and in their rage drowned some, but the greater part they drew forth like fishes, and cast them on the shore. The stores of grain, &c. were then placed on the heads of the prisoners, and despatched to the presence.

But, to return— The victorious Prince placed a strong garrison in Turwur Paleh, under the com­mand of an officer named Mihi-ud-dín Khan, Meh­mun, and he himself marched straight to reduce Koimbetore, &c. The English army, which had left a garrison in the small fort of Kurroor, and had arrived in the vicinity of Dharapoor, on hearing of the rapid advance of the Prince, abandoned the whole of the heavy stores they had collected, and the same night entered Kurroor. From that place, however, they again marched at night, rashly intending to make a night attack on the Prince’s army. It happened that, on the road, a spark of fire from a Hooka,* which some one was smoking, was carried by the wind to a box of ammunition, laden on a bullock; and that exploding, blew up all the rest of the boxes of ammunition, and nearly a thousand soldiers were blown into the air, like kites and crows, and burned to death. The picquets of the Prince’s army were first apprized of this, by the concussion, and the column of smoke, which arose; and they immediately marched and attacked the English on all sides, and killed the greater part of that force.— A few men, how­ever, with a thousand difficulties, and disgraces, escaped from this place of slaughter and destruc­tion to Trichinopoly.

Mukhdoom Sáhib, who was sent with a large force to punish certain rebellious Naimars, marched on to their districts,* and, at all places wherever he marched or halted, he seized the property and vio­lated the women of the rebellious infidels, and left no vestiges of their habitations; and, despatching troops of soldiers, with instructions to root out the rebels, he utterly destroyed the Talookas or districts of the idolators. In the meanwhile, he took up his residence in a small fort.

At length, one day, a party of these pagans, with a body of English troops, which had arrived from Mudhura, marched together, attacked this fort, and opened a fire of arrows and musketry on it. Mukhdoom, whose life was drawing near its close, with two hundred brave fellows, made a sortie* from the fort, and the enemy, according to an agreement previously made among them, surrounded him, and sought to take him prisoner. But that hero, not entertaining the slightest fear of the mob of his assailants, and the pride of Islám seizing him by the skirt of his honour and station, he with his brave soldiers charged them, like a falcon in the midst of a flight of pigeons, and a river of blood soon flowed from the wounds of their enemies, inflicted by their spears and swords; but he himself drank the cup of martyrdom.