French had troops, on the 11th of October; from this day it was to continue until the 11th of January. As soon as it was proclaimed, major Lawrence, who now received a commission appointing him to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the king's service, quitted Tritchinopoly and came to Madrass, where he was presented by the president, in the name of the company, with a sword enriched with diamonds, as a token of their acknowledgment of his military services. These distinctions, however, did not countervail his sense of the neglect which had been shewn him, by sending colonel Adlereron, an officer of superior rank, to command the English troops in India.
The two armies at Tritchinopoly, whilst remaining in expectation of the suspension of arms, had attempted nothing decisive against each other since the French retreated to the island. The French indeed detached a strong party to cannonade the workmen repairing the great bank at Coiladdy; and these troops appeared several times in sight of captain Smith's detachment, but were by the vigilance of this officer prevented from giving any interruption to the work: some other parties likewise molested the coolies repairing the watercourses at Moota Chellinoor, but they desisted as soon as Mahomed Issoof, with six companies of Sepoys were stationed there. In other parts of the province very few disturbances had happened since Maphuze Khan had marched from Conjeveram to Fort St. David, where he still remained. The Phousdar of Velore, soon after he released captain Smith in April, made overtures, offering to acknowledge Mahomed-ally; upon which the presidency of Madrass gave him in writing a promise of their protection so long as he conformed to the allegiance due from him to the Nabob; and Abdul-wahab the Nabob's brother, made a treaty with him on the same occasion.
In the beginning of the year 1754, Sallabad-jing accompanied by Mr. Bussy and the French troops took the field to oppose the Morattoe Ragogee Bonsola, who as he had threatened, had began to ravage the north-eastern parts of the Soubahship. No details of this campaign, any more than of the others in which Mr. Bussy has acted, are hitherto published, and all we know from more private communication is, that the army of Sallabad-jing and his allies advanced as far as Nagpore the capital of Ragogee, near which, after many skirmishes,
