66 
A JOURNEY FROM MADRAS THROUGH 
CHAPTER officers, in the manner most proper to secure their new conquest; 
many, however, left their ranks; and the followers of the camp, 
May 20, &c. under pretext of taking refreshment to their masters, poured into 
the town, and an entire night was employed in plunder. In this, 
I believe, very little murder was committed; although there can 
be no doubt that many persons were beaten, and threatened with 
death, in order to make them discover their property. The women 
on this occasion went out into the streets, and stood there- all nisrht 
in large groups ; I suppose, with a view of preventing any insult, 
by their exposed situation ; few men being capable of committing 
brutality in public. This precaution was probably little necessary. 
The soldiers had mostly been in the trenches two days ; they had 
been engaged in a hard day’s work ; and their hopes and their rage 
having then ceased, they were left in a state of languor, by which 
they were more inclined to seek repose, or cordial refreshments, 
than to indulge in sensual gratification. 
Next day the wounded and bruised of the enemy were collected 
from the works, and neighbourhood, to which some of them had 
crept ; and the mosque, which had been the great scene of blood- 
shed, became now a place of refuge, in which these poor creatures 
had every attention paid to them by the British surgeons. 
Buildings. The town of Seringapata?n is very poor. The streets are narrower. 
and more confused, than in any place that I have seen since leav- 
ing Bengal The generality of the houses are very mean, although 
many of the chiefs were \rell lodged after their fashion ; but for 
European inhabitants their houses are hot and inconvenient. 
Within the fort, Tippoo allowed no person to possess property in 
houses. He disposed of the dwellings as he thought fit, and on the 
slightest caprice changed the tenants. A great many of the chiefs 
fell at Siddhiswara , and at the storming of Seringapatam ; and those 
who survived, and the families of those who fell (all of whom have 
been pensioned by the Company), have mostly retired to the do- 
minions of the Nabob of Arcot , which they consider as more secure 
