HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



121 



Colonel Fergusson with his reserve, 

 moved from Jelasore on the 23d of 

 September, reached Balasore on the 

 4th of Oaober, and on the 10th, 

 proceeded to the southward, to 

 form a jiin6lion with colonel llar- 

 court. 



The storming and capture of the 

 fort of Barabuttee, Avas the last ex- 

 ploit of colonel Harcoiirt in the 

 Cuttack. This fort is of strength, 

 and has only one entrance by a nar- 

 row bridge, leading over a wet ditch 

 20 feet in depth, and varying in 

 breadth according to the situation 

 of the bastions, from 35 to 135 

 feet. On the morning of the 14th 

 of October,, a battery of one 12 

 pounder, 2 howitzers, and 2 six 

 pounders, opened its fire upon the 

 fort, about 500 yards from its out- 

 ward gate ; by eleven o'clock in 

 the forenoon, the enemy's guns were 

 silenced, and most of their defences 

 on the south face were destroyed, 

 where they now promised well for 

 an assault, and lieutenant colonel 

 Clayton was ordered to storm the 

 fort. The party sent on this ser- 

 vice, in passing the bridge, were ex- 

 po-itd to a heavy but ill directed 

 Are of musketry, and forty mi- 

 nutes elapsed before it succeed- 

 ed in blowing ooen the wicket, 

 tJie remaining part of the gate being 

 strengthened with great masses of 

 stone ; having forced this obstacle, 

 although obliged to enter singly, 

 and experiencing considerable resis- 

 tance in forcing 2 other gates, the 

 British troops were completely vic- 

 torious, and obtained possession of 

 the fort, which was immediately 

 abandoned by the enemy, whose 

 loss was considerable. This suc- 

 cess, brought with it the whole pro- 

 vince of Cuttack under the British 



dominion, an object, the value of 

 which we have already stated, but 

 which was considerably enhanced 

 by having taken place at such a mo- 

 mentous period of the war. By 

 this conquest, the communication 

 between the supreme government at 

 Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, general 

 Wellesley, and the residents atPoo- 

 nah, and Ilydrabad was opened ; 

 and the whole line of coast from the 

 mouth of the Hooghly, to Pondi- 

 cherry, under tlie protection of a 

 British flag, presented a hostile front 

 to the fleets of France, with which 

 country the war had just been re- 

 newed in India. 



Having thus brought into one 

 point of view all the transactions 

 connected with the military opera- ^ 

 tions against the confederated ar- 

 mies in the Deccan, and those in the 

 provinces ofGuzerat, in the western, • 

 and Cuttack on the eastern side of 

 India, it will now be our pleasing 

 task to revert to the transactions in 

 the northern Hindostan, and to ex- 

 hibit the result of the operations en- 

 trusted to the personal dire6tion 

 and command of general Lake, the 

 chief in command of the British 

 troops in the peninsala. The vari- 

 ety and importance of the objects 

 to which that great ofTicer's exerti- 

 ons were to be exclusively diredled, 

 both in a military and political point 

 of view, induced the governor-ge- 

 neral to invest him with full dis- 

 cretionary powers, to conclude upon 

 the spot, whatever arrangements 

 might a-ppear to be necessary for the 

 accomplishment of that plan of 

 operations, with the execution of 

 which he was entrusted. 



Vested with this high authority, 

 the commander in chief moved from 

 the station at Cawnpore, on the 7th 



of 



