105 
HINDO 
total number of. troops deftined for the reduction of this 
province, amounted to 4916 men, of which number 3041 
formed the main body, whifch was to advance from 
Ganjam, under the command of lieutenant-colonel Har- 
court, of the iath regiment of foot, and who was appointed 
to the general command of all the forces employed upon 
this fervice. Fivehundred Bengal native volunteers were on 
their way, under captain Dick, to reinforce- colonel Har- 
court. A fecond detachment of 521 native volunteers, 
four field-pieces, and a proportion of artillery-men and 
ftores, were to embark from Calcutta, under captain 
Morgan, on the 13th of September, and to occupy Bala- 
fore, a place belonging to the rajah of Berar, lituated on 
the coaft of the bay of that name, and diftant about 
twenty-five miles from the river Subanreeka, which forms 
in that quarter the barrier between the Britifh territories 
and the province of Cattack. Eight hundred and fifty- 
four men were placed under the command of lieutenant- 
colonel Fergufon, at Jelafore, a town lituated on the 
Englilh fide of the Subanreeka, twenty miles from the 
fea; and was defigned to form a junction with the force 
at Balafore, when the ftate of the intermediate country, 
and the progrefs of the main divilion from Ganjam, lliould 
alford a favourable opportunity 5 and 1300, of which 800 
were fepoys, and 500 Bengal native volunteers, remained 
at Mednapour, a military ftation in the Britilh dominions, 
forty-five miles north of Balafore. to fupply the troops at 
Balafore and Jelafore, and at the lame time to protect the 
company’s territories againft the incurlions oi the rajah 
of Berar’s predatory cavalry. 
On the 14th of September, the troops under the com¬ 
mand of colonel Harcourt took poifelfion of Munickpatam, 
a town in the Berar territory; and on the 18th encamped 
at Jaggernaut, where the bramins of the celebrated pagoda 
at that place put it under Britilh protection. After 
leaving Jaggernaut, colonel Harcourt received little mo- 
leilation from the enemy’s troops, and he took poifelfion 
of Cattack without oppolition. The detachment under 
captain Morgan was equally fuccefsful at Balafore and 
Sooring, a poll twenty miles to the fouthward of that 
town, both places being taken poflelfion of with little or 
no lofs, on the 2ill of September and the ill of OClober. 
Colonel Fergufon, with his referve, moved from Jelafore 
on the 23d of September, reached Balafore on the 4th of 
OClober, and on the 10th proceeded to the fouthward, to 
form a junftion with colonel Harcourt. 
The ilorming and capture of the fort of Barabuttee, 
was the lalt exploit of colonel Harcourt in the Cattack. 
This fort is of great ftrength, and has only one entrance by a 
narrow bridge, leading over a wet ditch twenty feet in 
depth, and varying in breadth, according to the lituation 
of the ballions, from thirty-five to one hundred and 
thirty-five feet. On the morning of the 14th of October, 
a battery of one twelve-pounder, two howitzers, and two 
fix pounders, opened its fire upon the fort, about five 
hundred yards from its outward gate; by eleven o’clock 
in the forenoon, the enemy’s guns were lilenced, and 
moll of their defences on the fouth face were dellroyed, 
where they now promiied well for an aflault, and lieutenant- 
colonel Clayton was ordered to ftorm the fort. The party 
lent on this fervice, in paffing the bridge, were expofed 
to a heavy, but iil-direbted fire of mulketry, and forty 
minutes elapfed before it fucceeded in blowing open the 
wicket, the remaining part of the gate being ftrengthened 
with great mafles of Hone. Having forced this obllacle, 
although obliged to enter fingly, and experiencing con- 
fiderable refinance in forcing two other gates, the Britilh 
troops were completely vi&orious, and obtained poifelfion 
the fort, which was immediately abandoned by the 
enemy, whole lofs was confidorable. This fuccefs brought 
the whole province of Cattack under the Britilh dominion, 
an objebt, the value of which we have already Hated ; but 
which was confiderably enhanced by having taken place 
at luch a momentous period of the war. By this con- 
queft, the commpnication between the fupreme goVern- 
, Vol. X.'No. 644.' 
O S T A N. 
ment of Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, general Wellefley, 
and the refidents at Poonah and Hydrabad, was opened ; 
and the whole line of coaft, from the mouth of the Hooghly 
to Pondicherry, under the prOteftion of a Britilh flag, 
prefented a hoftile front to the fleets of France, with 
which country the war had juft been renewed in India. 
Having thus brought into one point of view all the 
tranlaclions connected with the military operations againft 
the confederated armies in the Deccan, and thole in the 
provinces of Guzerat in the weftern, and Cattack on the 
eaftern, fide of the peninfula, it will now be our pleafmg 
talk to revert to the tranladlions in the northern Hin- 
dooftan, and to exhibit the relult of the operations en- 
trulted to the perlonal direction and command of general 
Lake. The variety and importance of the objedls to 
which that great officer’s exertions were to be excluflvely 
directed, both in a military and political point of view, 
induced the governor-general, marquis Wellefley, to inveli 
him with full dilcretionary powers, to conclude, upon the 
Ijpbt, whatever arrangements, might appear to be necelfary 
for the accomplilhment of that plan of operations, with 
the execution of which he was entrufted. 
Veiled with this high authority, the commander-in-chief 
moved from the ltation at Cawnpour, on the 7th of Auguft, 
1803, and arrived in the neighbourhood of Coel, with the 
main body of the Bengal army, on the 28th. On his 
march thither, he received advices from the Britifh pleni¬ 
potentiary to Scindia, informing him of the rupture with 
that chief, by the termination of the negociation: on this 
intelligence, general Lake confidered himfelf warranted, 
as well as from the tenor of the governor-general’s inftruc- 
tions, to' enter the territories of that chieftain on the 29th, 
in order to attack M. Perron’s army, then encamped at a 
Ihort diliance from the fortrefs of Allygur. This pofition 
of the enemy was particularly advantageous. His front 
was completely covered by an extenfive fwamp, .which in 
fome parts is not fordable; bis right was protected by 
the fort of Allygur, and his left by fome villages occupied 
by parties of his troops. M. Perron’s force was eftimated 
at about 15,000 horfe, of which from four to five thoufand 
were regular cavalry. 
General Lake having determined on turning the left 
flank of M. Perron’s force, the Britifn troops were formed 
into two lines, and advanced to the attack fupported by 
the infantry in three and four lines, as the confined nature 
of the ground would admit. The excellent front dil- 
played by the Britilh cavalry, and the determined coun¬ 
tenance of the whole army, fo completely over-awed 
M. Perron and his troops, that they retreated with fuch 
rapidity, as to preclude the polfibility of charging them 
with any effect. This precipitate retreat, although at the 
moment a fource of vexation and difappointment to the 
commander-in-chief, was yet, in its confcquences, emi¬ 
nently beneficial to the Britilh interefts, as M. Perron’s 
military reputation received a (hock from the events of 
that day, which it never recovered, and which was even¬ 
tually the caufe of the lofs to him of the confidence of 
his troops 5 the defection of many of his bell officers; 
and finally, of the diforganization and difperlion of the 
French corps in India: at the fame time that the repu¬ 
tation of the Britilh troops, and of their undoubted lupe*- 
riority, increafed in the fame "proportion, in the opinion, 
of the native powers, as that of M. Perron and his boafted 
troops had diminilhed. 
The commander-in-chief, in confequence of the a£lion, 
being in poifelfion of Coel, encamped to the northward, 
between that town and the fort of Allygur, to the reduc¬ 
tion of which he immediately applied himfelf. This 
place, one of the ftrongeft in this part of India, lias 
lingular advantages; it has a broad and deep ditch, with 
a fine-glacis; and the country being, for a mile round, 
erfeCtly levelled, is expofe'd in every direction to its.guns. 
t has only one entrance, which is very intricate, and over 
a- harrow caufeway, under which the enemy had com¬ 
menced mining; but fortunately had omitted to cooftruft 
E e a drawbridge. 
