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narrative. Had it only related to the siege of Onore, however inte- 

 resting that event was to the friends of the gallant officers who so 

 bravely defended it, there might have been many desiderata to 

 render it equally so in a distant country, and at a remote 

 period; but the siege of Onore contains an epitome of human 

 nature; its little history exhibits a striking contrast between 

 national and individual character, actuated by different mo- 

 tives, and pursuing different means — a contrast in which the 

 British officer stands on an exalted pedestal; encircled by cou- 

 rage, honour, fortitude, and humanity; opposed to an orien- 

 tal tyrant, with a train of fear, distrust, chicanery, and the meaner 

 vices. Thus, eminently favoured, I have enjoyed a peculiar pleasure 

 in collating the preceding pages from the voluminous collection of 

 a gentleman highly respected, who was an eye-witness of what he 

 relates, endued with every requisite qualification for the purpose, 

 and who had compiled a narrative expressly for publication. My 

 own suppressed memoranda at Goa and Tellicherry are of compara- 

 tively little consequence, and are abundantly superseded by Dr. 

 F. Buchanan's invaluable publication. But to have been the 

 means of rescuing from oblivion this interesting episode, in the 

 history of the Mahomedan dynasty of Mysore, affords me some 

 satisfaction. I shall conclude the subject with a remark of Tacitus 

 in his life of Agricola, a little altered for the present occasion; 

 which, although the characters alluded to may differ in their re- 

 spective situations in public life, the general truth of the observa- 

 tion is sufficiently obvious. 



" To transmit to posterity the lives and characters of illustrious 

 men, was an office frequently performed in ancient limes. In the 



