APPEARANCE OF CHOLERA. 191 



elapsed, and a British army had enclosed him on each side, 

 before he would affix his name to it. His troops being 

 then disbanded, he seemed thenceforth to place his hopes 

 of aggrandizement solely in the English alliance, and cor- 

 dially exerted himself in promoting its objects. 



The Pindaree chiefs could not view this immense force, 

 especially when it began to close in around them,»without 

 the deepest alarm. While the rainy season yet suspended 

 operations, they held frequent conferences on the state of their 

 affairs. Their only hope, they were convinced, was to quit 

 their present haunts and seek a temporary home in some 

 Temote quarter of India. But it was difficult to find a se- 

 cure place in which to deposite their property and their 

 families ; for even amid their wandering life they were still 

 susceptible of the' strongest domestic attachments. This 

 embarrassment and the violent dissensions which had long 

 reigned between their two principal heads, Kurreem and 

 Cheetoo, caused them to break up without having formed 

 any fixed plan. The invading armies began to move as 

 soon as the rains had abated, and while the swelling of the 

 rivers might yet impede the rapid movements of their 

 adversaries. 



The opening of the campaign, meantime, was retarded 

 by two very unexpected circumstances : the first was the 

 appearance in the main army of that terrible epidemic 

 usually denominated the cholera spasmodica, which, after 

 spreading desolation and dismay throughout India, and 

 occasioning a very serious loss of life in the eastern parts of 

 Europe, has at length penetrated into Britain, and extended 

 its ravages over great part of the New World. In its first 

 progress, it struck the world as a new and unheard-of visit- 

 ation ; but further researches have established, that the 

 same disease has from time to time appeared in the East. 

 Ancient writings, in the languages of Southern India, 

 describe it very distinctly under the names of Sitanga or 

 Vishuchi. Extensive ravages are represented to have been 

 committed by it in Bengal in 1762 ; in a division of troops 

 which in 1781 were marching through the district of Gan- 

 jam ; and in 1783, during the annual festival at Hurdvvar. 

 In 1787, a malady, the symptoms of which clearly establish 

 its identity, prevailed at Vellorc and Arcot on the coast of 

 Coromandel. It had not, however, during a Ion" period, 



