88 EASTERN HINDOOSTAN. 



feven hundred, oppofed to five thoufand cavalry, and between 

 forty and fifty thoiifand infantry, defended by every protedion 

 that the mihtary art could invent. 

 Campaicn- in In returning towards the Choultry plain, I fliall, from Ban- 



ijb-j. " galore^ for a fliort way tread the fame route as I did in my ad- 



vance with the Britijh army, in their march into the Mvfore 

 in 1767. The war in which the Prefidency of Madras was en- 

 gaged with Ayder AH and the Nizam, wiio had been fimply 

 drawn into alliance w'ith him, is a fubjedl fo apt, that I cannot 

 omit a flight mention of it. General Jofepb Smith and Colonel 

 Wood were the two able officers who led our armies. Sjjiith 

 took Cavenpatai)?, and fome other fmall places, and then laid 

 fiege to Kifnagherri, in the Barramahal^ which he was obliged 

 to raife at the approach of Ayder, who, taking advantage of the 

 pafs of Vellore, fuddenly fate down before Caveripatam, which 

 Smith had before made himfelf matter of. He then attacked 

 Sjnith on his march, who, after fome lofs, retreated to a ftrong 

 poft near "TrinomaUee, in the Carnatic, where he was joined by 

 Wood with a large force. Near that place, on September 27th, 

 1767, he attacked the allied armies. The Nizam and his 

 troops inftantly gave way, and he loft all his family cannon. 

 Ayder, by his conducl and courage, barely permitted the name 

 of victory to be clamed by our able commander, but ftill it had 

 the effects ; the Nizam made peace with us, and went home 

 in difguft, and Ayder retired to the mountains. 



Sometime before, Ayder had detached his fon TippooSaib, then 

 only feventeen years of age, on an inroad into the Carnatic, at- 

 tended with all the calamities to the poor country, as did that 



we 



