ENGAGEMENTS WITH HYDER. 67 



severely annoyed by a cross-fire from the enemy. Mr. Mill's 

 authorities even assert that his movements were paralyzed 

 by a dispute between him and Sir Hector Monro, and that 

 had Hyder made a vigorous charge he would have com- 

 pletely carried the day. But he at length yielded the 

 ground on which the battle was fought, and the English 

 reached it over the dead bodies of their yet unburied coun- 

 trymen, who had fallen in the former action. The present, 

 according to Mr. Mill, was boasted of in the Mysorean ac- 

 counts as a complete victory ; but Colonel Wilks says they 

 represented it merely as a drawn battle, which was not 

 very far from the truth. 



Neither the fame nor strength of the British army was 

 improved by this engagement. The commander, however, 

 having learned that the important fortress of Vellore was 

 besieged and reduced to extremity, determined upon a 

 vigorous attempt to relieve it ; and having understood that 

 Hyder was posted at Sholinghur, resolved upon another 

 effort to bring him to action. On the morning of the 27th 

 September he pushed forward with such vigour as very 

 nearly to surprise the Indians before their ranks could be 

 fully formed. They rallied indeed, and made several brisk 

 charges, but were finally obliged to betake themselves to 

 flight, with the loss of 5000 men, while only a hundred fell 

 on the side of the assailants. General Coote was thus 

 enabled, though not without difficulty, to march upon Yel- 

 lore, the siege of which was abandoned on his approach. 



The war continued with various fortune. Intelligence 

 having been received of hostilities between the English and 

 Butch, Lord Macartney, now president at Madras, formed 

 the design of reducing Negapatam, the capital of their 

 settlements ; and, finding Sir Eyre Coote opposed to the 

 measure, completed, without drawing from the main army, 

 a detachment of 4000 men, commanded by Sir Hector 

 Monro. The enterprise was conducted with the greatest 

 vigour, and five successive lines of redoubts were carried 

 by the besiegers, with such energy and intrepidity that the 

 garrison, though consisting of about 8000 men, capitulated 

 in fourteen days. All the other Dutch settlements on the 

 same coast fell along with it ; and even their important 

 station of Trincomalee, on the island of Ceylon, was carried 

 by storm. 



