68 WAR WITH MYSORE. 



Meantime Colonel Brathwaite, with a body of 2000 men, 

 was recovering for the English their ascendency in Tanjore. 

 His corps, however, when the whole country was occupied 

 by the Mysorean cavalry, seems to have been too small to 

 remain with safety detached from the main army. Hyder 

 not only cut off from the British all sources of accurate in- 

 formation, but opened corrupted fountains ; all the spies 

 who pretended to give them intelligence were in his pay ; 

 and Brathwaite remained encamped on the banks of the 

 Coleroon, without a suspicion that the flower of the enemy's 

 forces were hemming him in on every side. Even when 

 assured of the fact by one of the natives, he was so misled 

 by opposite information as to think the assertion unworthy 

 of credit. Suddenly he found himself enclosed by an army 

 of more than ten times his number. All accounts agree 

 that the resistance of this devoted little corps was truly gal- 

 lant, and that, during the protracted contest, it repulsed 

 repeated and desperate attacks. But at length an onset 

 by the French troops broke the sepoys ; the whole were 

 thrown into confusion, and finally either killed or obliged 

 to surrender. The French officers displayed their usual 

 humanity, and even Tippoo, who commanded, did not on 

 this occasion treat the prisoners with his accustomed 

 cruelty. 



Notwithstanding this triumph, Hyder felt deep anxiety as 

 to his future prospects. He learned that, through the in- 

 defatigable exertions made by Mr. Hastings from Bengal, 

 the Mahratta government had withdrawn from his alliance, 

 and had even bound themselves to guaranty the British 

 territory as it stood at the period of their last treaty. At 

 the same time a detachment, which he had sent to besiege 

 Tellicherry on the Malabar coast, met with a very unex- 

 pected resistance ; they were not only unable to make any 

 impression, but, on a strong reinforcement being received 

 from Bombay, were beaten and compelled to surrender. 

 Hyder was so much depressed by these unfavourable cir- 

 cumstances, that he had even formed the design of evacu- 

 ating the Carnatic, when tidings arrived of a strong body 

 of French troops having arrived on the coast ; and, accord- 

 ingly, on the 10th March, they were landed to the amount 

 of 3000. The French and their allies, considering them- 

 selves now decidedly superior in the field, immediately laid 



