RETREAT OF THE BRITISH. 93 



from the possession of which he derived a great advantage. 

 The battle was of long continuance, and maintained with 

 great obstinacy. The English, unable to employ their own 

 artillery with any effect, suffered considerably from that of 

 the enemy, and were also seriously annoyed by numerous 

 flights of rockets furnished from the capital. Yet, on com- 

 ing to close combat, they carried, by successive charges, one 

 potnt after another, till the whole of the sultan's army was 

 obliged to seek shelter under the fortifications of Seringa- 

 patam. , 



Lord Cornwallis, at the expense of 500 men in killed and 

 wounded, had gained the honour of the day ; but he was 

 in such a situation that only a decisive victory, and scarcely 

 even that, could have enabled him to achieve his object. 

 Tippoo had practised, with the utmost diligence, his old 

 system of laying waste the country around the English. 

 They had marched through a desert, and in vain, by send- 

 ing scouts in every direction, endeavoured to find a human 

 being who could afford either aid or information. The 

 army was now suffering most deeply from famine, disease, 

 and "all those evils which, in a campaign, are often more 

 fatal than the sword. Their means of conveyance were so 

 deficient that the troops were compelled, in view of the 

 enemy, to drag the baggage, and even the heavy cannon, 

 as if they had been beasts of burden. In short, after sev- 

 eral marches and countermarches, the British commander 

 felt himself under the painful necessity of immediately IP- 

 treating, with the sacrifice of all the battering-train and 

 heavy equipments with which he was to have besieged 

 Seringapatam. He was obliged also to stop the progress 

 of another expedition which was advancing to his sup- 

 port. 



Although Madras was the main centre of the English 

 operations, yet the war had extended to the coast of Mala- 

 bar. There Colonel Hartley held the command, with a 

 force numerically small, but aided by the zealous co-opera- 

 tion of the natives, who had been thoroughly alienated by 

 the violence of Tippoo. This enmity towards the sultan 

 rendered it impossible for his troops to carry on that de- 

 sultory warfare in which they excelled ; they were there- 

 fore obliged to fight a regular battle, and were com- 

 pletely defeated. Soon after, in December, 1790, General 



