36 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
CHAPTER IV. 
WANDIWASH. — TIGER-SLAYER. HINDOO FESTIVAL. 
From Mahabalipuram, quitting the coast, we pro- 
ceeded towards Chingleput, crossed the Paliar river, 
and halted at Outramalore. We left this miserable 
town early in the afternoon, and stopped for the night 
at Wandiwash. This place is remarkable, at least to 
Europeans, for a severe battle which was fought 
between the English and French troops, the former 
commanded by Colonel Coote, the latter by Monsieur 
de Lally, certainly one of the most accomplished officers 
of his time. In September 1759, in an attack upon 
Wandiwash, the British had been repulsed; but in the 
November of the same year, it was taken by Colonel 
Coote with very little loss. During the January fol- 
lowing, that decisive battle just mentioned was fought 
here between the British and French armies, com- 
manded by the officers above named, when the latter 
were defeated with a prodigious number killed, and 
were soon after obliged to abandon the country. The 
whole weight of the action fell upon the Europeans in 
either army : the sepoys merely looked on. After the 
conflict had been decided, the native commanders 
highly complimented Colonel Coote upon so signal a 
