TRINOMALEE. 
41 
had been wounded, and the intestines cut through. 
By way of a trophy, the victor deliberately skinned 
his dead enemy, which he soon accomplished, and 
with great dexterity, and then returned, in the pride 
of power, with the token of victory upon his shoulders. 
He obtained from us two or three pagodas, which he 
considered a most liberal reward of his bravery, and 
towards the close of the day we proceeded towards 
Trinomalee. 
This is a ruinous town of considerable extent. It 
was here that the combined armies under the cele- 
brated Hyder Ally and the Nizam were so signally 
defeated, in 1767, by Colonel Smith, when the Nizam 
lost seventy pieces of cannon. It stands upon the 
acclivity of a rugged mountain upwards of two miles 
in circumference, which has upon its summit a small 
chapel held in extreme veneration by the Hindoos ; it 
being the current belief among them, that whoever 
should profane its sanctity, by entering within its 
sacred walls, would be immediately consumed by 
subterranean fire. None but the officiating Bramins 
are permitted to enter it. The pagoda is considered 
the loftiest in the Carnatic, being two hundred and 
twenty feet high. The town of Trinomalee still ex- 
hibits the sad effects of the dreadful ravages of war. 
There is an air of repulsive desolation about it that 
chills the heart, as the eye gazes upon the fearful 
results of human ambition. In India man has every- 
where put his varied signature to the magnificent 
volume of nature ; his hand-writing is upon every 
leaf, which, like an illuminated page, becomes the 
more resplendent from the artificial decoration. The 
e 3 
