SHORT CHRONICLE 



OF EVENTS. 



February ' 7.. 1702. 



Foreign. 



After the public had waited 

 with great impatience for news 

 from india, by the arrival of 

 the Swallow packet, that im- 

 patience has been in part aba- 

 ted, in a manner highly satisfac- 

 tory to the minister. By this 

 packet, which arrived three days 

 before the meetirg of parlia- 

 ment, the Madras courier, has 

 been brought over as low down 

 as October 1 5. by which, af- 

 fairs in India are represented to 

 be in a situation much more 

 favourable for the Britifh arms 

 than we had any reason to ex- 

 pect; and such parts of L. Corn- 

 wallis's dispatches as have been 

 made public concur in cherilh- 

 ing the same ideas, altho' we 

 were formerly told, that in the 

 hasty retreat from Seringapatam, 

 and the stilt more hasty march 

 of general Abercrombic, the 

 , Lritilh train of artillery, and 

 baggage, were in both cases a- 

 bandoncd, and that the army 

 had sufl'ered very much from 

 famine and fatigue ; yet that 

 still, as if it 1 ad raised battering 

 cannon from heaven, tliey are 

 \'0L. vii. 



ready to take the field, as soon 

 as the dry season sets in, with 

 the tuost afsured prospect of 

 succefs. We are tolu that 

 Tippoo, who carried his whole 

 army and baggage acrofs the 

 Cavary, in the face of the ene- 

 my, witli scarcely any lofs, is . 

 now reduced to the most deplo- 

 rable distrefs ; that he has nei- 

 ther resources of money nor of 

 men ; yet it has happened that 

 scarcely one deserter has left 

 him to join the enemy. iiow 

 these accounts and facts are to 

 be reconciled, time will dis- 

 cover. 



We were told, before the 

 war began, that Tippoo was 

 one of the most cruel despots 

 th»t ever ruled over a nation 5 

 that lie was so much disliked 

 by all his subjects, that he would 

 be infallibly deserted by nis 

 whole people, as soon as any 

 army (hould appear in the coun- 

 try, powerful enough to af- 

 ford his subjects protection a- 

 gainst his fury. We now know 

 that all these afscrlions have 

 been contradicted by the most 

 undeniable facts. His troops 



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