SIKGE OF SERINGAPATAM COMMENCED. 117 



of the island and fortress. He thus avoided the desolated 

 tract prepared for him ; opened a more ready communica- 

 tion with the Bombay army under General Stuart, and the 

 fertile districts in the south ; and, according to every re- 

 port, expected on that side favourable opportunities for at- 

 tack. This expedient also enabled him to avoid the station 

 on which Tippoo had proposed to give battle ; and that 

 chief, thwarted in all his measures, threw himself into Se- 

 ringapatam, with the resolution of defending it to the last 

 extremity. 



On the 5th April, the British took their station opposite 

 the western front of the foTtress, at the distance of about 

 two miles. The position was strong ; their right resting on 

 elevated ground, their left upon the river Cavery ; and several 

 topes, or groves of Indian trees, afforded ample materials 

 for the construction of the works. The enemy still occu- 

 pied a defensive line behind an aqueduct, on which Colonels 

 Wellesley and Shawe made a night-attack and were re- 

 pulsed ; but being reinforced, they carried it in open day. 

 General Floyd was detached to meet and escort General 

 Stuart and the Bombay army. On the evening of the 

 13th, their signal-guns were heard ; and they arrived late 

 on the 14th, having been beset on their way by the whole 

 body of the Mysorean cavalry, yet without sustaining any 

 serious loss. General Floyd then marched to the south- 

 ward in search of supplies. An unexpected and alarming 

 discovery had been made, that there was grain in the camp 

 for only eighteen days' consumption. This extraordinary 

 failure, into which Colonel Wilks mysteriously says, that 

 after the lapse of eighteen years it was not yet time to in- 

 quire, did not, however, as supplies were obtained from 

 various quarters, prove an impediment to the progress of 

 the siege. 



Meantime deep deliberation had been held as to the point 

 whence the fortress might be most advantageously attacked. 

 There was a south-western angle, by assailing which the 

 besiegers could have obtained a lodgment on the island, 

 and been thereby secured from the expected swelling of the 

 Cavery, while at the farthest west, the walls, extending 

 along the very brink of the river, could be reached only by 

 crossing its channel. The fortifications at the first point, 

 however, appeared both strong and complicated ; while Iho 



