COMMENCEMENT Ol' IHE WAR. 113 



in June, would put a stop to military operations, ■so that to 

 enter at present upon a tedious negotiation would enable 

 Tippoo to gain a whole year, in the course of which he 

 might hope to procure allies and reinforcements from various 

 quarters. On receiving, therefore, no answer by the 3d of 

 February, the governor-general had ordered the armies to 

 advance ; and on the arrival of the sultan's letter, he wrote 

 to him on the 22d February, announcing that the mission of 

 Major Doveton could no longer be attended with the ex- 

 pected advantages ; that his long silence had rendered it 

 necessary to order the advance of the army ; but that Gen- 

 eral Harris was empowered to receive any embassy, and to 

 enter into any negotiation, by which a treaty might be ar- 

 ranged, on such conditions as should appear to the allies in- 

 dispensably necessary to the establishment of a secure and 

 permanent peace. Tippoo, however, even before receiving 

 this letter, either suspecting that his consent had not pro- 

 duced the intended effect, or moved by his own inconstant 

 disposition, had determined to try the fortune of arms. 



The army appointed to invade the kingdom of Mysore 

 consisted of 4381 European and 10,695 native infantry, 

 884 European and 1751 native cavalry, with 608 artillery ; 

 forming in all 18,319 fighting-men, with 104 pieces of can- 

 non, and 2483 lascars and pioneers. To these were added 

 10,157 infantry, and 6000 horse, belonging to the nizam, 

 arid which, under British command, now formed an effective 

 body of troops. In the mean time, General Stuart, a vet- 

 eran in Indian warfare, was advancing with 6420 men from 

 Malabar to join and co-operate with the main army. 



Tippoo, anxious to strike a blow at tiie commencement 

 of the campaign, had the penetration to discern the advan- 

 tage which he°derived from the detached state of the invad- 

 ing armies proceeding from Malabar and Coromandel. He 

 mfght thus attack the former, when it had just ascended the 

 Ghauts, and taken a defensive position amid the hills and 

 forests which enclose the territory of Coorg. By a rapid 

 movement to the westward he arrived on the 5th March, 

 1799, very unexpectedly in the neighbourhood of that army. 

 The English, who conceived that the main force of the 

 enemy was still on the opposite side of India, were some- 

 what disunited. Colonel Stuart had stationed a corps under 

 Colonel Montresor eight miles in advance, on the hill of 



K2 



