74 HINDOOSTAN, 



miles of Agra ; north-westward, to the upper part of the navigable 

 course of the Ganges ; and south-westward to the Jumna river. 



In 1778, a new v/ar commenced with the Mahrattas ; on which oc- 

 casion a brigade consisting of 7000 Indian troops, commanded by 

 British officers, traversed the whole empire of the Mahrattas, from 

 the river Jumna to the western ocean. About this time the war with 

 France broke out, and Hyder Alley, probably expecting assistance 

 from the French, made a dreadful irruption into the Carnalic, at the 

 head of 100,000 men. For some time he carried every thing before 

 him ; and having the fortune to defeat, or rather destroy, a detach- 

 ment of the British army, under colonel Baillie, it was generally 

 imagined that the power of Britain in that part of the world would 

 soon have been annihilated. By the happy exertions of Sir Eyre 

 Coote, however, to whom the management of affairs was now com- 

 mitted, the progress of this formidable adversary was stopped, and 

 he soon became weary of a war, which was attended with incredible 

 expence to himself, without any reasonable prospect of success. By 

 the year 1782, therefore, Hyder Alley was sincerely desirous of peace, 

 but died before it could be brought to a conclusion ; and his rival, Sir 

 Eyre Coote, did not survive him above five months : a very remarka- 

 ble circumstance, that the commanders in chief of two armies, oppos- 

 ed to each other, should both die natural deaths within so short a 

 space of time. 



To Hyder Alley succeeded his son Tippoo Sultan, whose military 

 prowess is '.veil known. Of all the native princes of India, Tippoo 

 was the most formidable to the British government, and the most 

 hostile to it's authority. The peace of Mangalore, in 1781, had, it 

 was supposed, secured his fidelity by very feeble ties ; and the 

 splendid embassy which, not long after that event, he dispatched to 

 France, afforded much reason to appi'ehend that some plan was con- 

 certed between the old government of that country and the tyrant of 

 Mysore, for the atmoyance of Great Britain in its Indian possessions j 

 but this plan was happily defeated by the French revolution. 



The increasing power of Tippoo was not less formidable to the 

 Dutch, than to the English ; and the vicinity of Cochin, their most 

 flourishing settlement on the continent of India, to the territories of 

 that aspiring monarch, made them tremble for its safety. Besides 

 Cochin, the Dutch were possessed of two other forts, which were 

 situated between Mysore, and their favourite settlement; and one of 

 them, Cranganore, had been taken by Hyder Alley in 1779. or 1780. 

 When the war broke out in 1780, between Hyder and the English, 

 he was obliged to evacuate his garrisons on the Malabar coast, to 

 employ his force in the Carnatic ; and Holland and France being soon 

 after united with Hyder against the English, the Dutch embraced 

 the opportunity of clandestinely taking possession, and re-garrison- 

 ing the fort, a measure which greatly offended Hyder, and of which 

 he loudly complained. By the mediation, however, of France, a 

 compromise took place, but upon what terms is uncertain. 



From the vicinity of Cranganore and Acottah to his boundary, and 

 their situation within the territory of an acknowledged tributary to 

 Mysore (the rajah of Cochin) the possession of them was a most 

 desirable object with Tippoo. In the month of June, 1789, he march- 

 ed a formidable force towards Cranganore, with a professed intention 

 of making himself master of it, upon a claim chiefly founded upon 

 the transactions we have iust related. Unable, therefore, to retain 



