EASTERN HINDOOSTAN. 6i 



by their bravery and prudence. La/Iy continued before the 

 place, with unabated vigour, near three months. He raifed the 

 fiege on the i6th of February 1759, fo precipitately, that h© 

 had not leifure to execute his barbarous refoiution, that of lay- 

 ing the Black Tozvn in aflies, fliould he be neceffitated to make 

 a retreat. 



The country which bounds the eafl: and fouth of Madras is Choultrt- 

 rendered by art extremely beautiful. That towards the town 

 of St. 'Thome is the Choultry Plain, about three miles and a half 

 in extent, and the fteril fands covered with plantations, inter- 

 mixed with villas and other habitations. The fame plain ex- 

 tends to the weftward ten miles, and all the way occupied by 

 the retreats of the citizens of Madras^ efpecially near the ex- 

 tremity, about the greater Mount St. Thomas. Many of the 

 houfes are elegant in their architecture, and the apartments 

 fpacious and magnificent. Here the owners, and their company, 

 enjoy themfelves in the verandas, or open porticos, in the cool 

 breeze of the evening. Every houfe is illuminated, and affords 

 the ftranger an enchanting fpe(5lacle *. 



On the i8th of July, 1780, the felicity of this plain was dif- Inroad of 

 turbed by the barbarous inroad made by Jyder All, who, at the 

 head of a hundred thoufand men, poured down on the plains 

 of the Carnatic like a refiftlefs torrent, which fwept away every 

 villa, houfe, and village which lay in its courfe in the vicinity 

 of Madras. The then governor, and the principal people, 

 feemed in a ftate of torpidity, ftupidly incredulous to all the 

 accounts of his more diftant advance. " I was," fays Mr*. 



• Hodgcs's Travels, p. 10. 



Hodges^, 



